


Negotiations

by cheshyrekaat



Series: You have seen me, before. [5]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies), Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Developing Friendships, Iffy technology, Multi, Multiple Relationships, Post V-Day, Spies & Secret Agents, ruined time-lines, terrible science, there is a ninja
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-12
Updated: 2017-08-06
Packaged: 2018-07-23 14:47:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 50,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7467459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cheshyrekaat/pseuds/cheshyrekaat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Devina Fredericks is always looking to develop new, mutually beneficial friendships.  When MI6 gets solid information on the Kingsman after V-day, the decision is made to leave them alone.<br/>Devina, however, wants a new suit.<br/>Q thinks she is just bored.  He might be right.</p>
<p>This is a crossover with my version of the Daniel Craig/James Bond universe (though I threw Alec in, as well).  I went ahead and put this in a series in which the same OFC is featured.  Happy reading!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Gaining Entry

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, all.  
> My fascination with Kingsman has finally turned into my very own fanfiction. Of course, I enjoyed writing that ofc I have so much, I had to get her involved. She gets bored, you know? And then she gets into mischief.  
> Why couldn't Kingsman be that mischief? The world of espionage is not all the large, after all.
> 
> So, I have made this part of the "Yes, you have seen me before," series. 
> 
> So, Chapter One: Devina makes her first trip to Kingsman

As Devina stepped up out of the Oxford Circus Station and began her stroll to Savile Row, she thought about the changes that had taken place in her life, recently. 

She was thankful that she and Tristan were the paranoid pair that they were. When Richmond Valentine had made his announcement to give away free SIM cards to all and sundry, they were on it, immediately. No one was that altruistic, they just had to find the angle.

And what an angle it had turned out to be. 

Their information had come in too slowly for them to be able to prevent what was being called V-day, but they had, at the very least, made sure that MI6 was not compromised. Q and D had officially met with M and M. Holmes to brief them on the plans and keep the basics of the running government secure. They hadn’t had a time line, but they were certain that things were going to escalate quickly.

MI6 had finally caught a break, if you could call it a break, when there was sudden, heavy movement among the wealth of the world and by keeping tabs on Valentine’s satellites; they were able to trace him to the bunker location that he’d chosen for himself and a “few close friends.” 

In doing so, they had discovered the group calling themselves The Kingsman.

On one hand, it had been nice to know that _someone_ had a bead on the situation and was trying to rectify it. On the other, much more dominant, bitch-slapping hand, it rankled that a private organization had gotten the drop on them. After all MI6 had the resources to muck up the satellite signal, using UK’s own satellites, if they had known about it ahead of time. Those programs couldn’t be written instantly, after all.

Well, over all, the crisis had happened, but had been cut remarkably short, thanks to this phantom agency. 

The next, well, more than several, meetings had been about The Kingsman and what should be done about them.  
MI6 had known for decades that there was an independent agency working out of Britain, but now, thanks to Q’s quick thinking, they had traced them back to their home base, broken into their systems and the gaps had been filled in. Between Q and D, it had taken them no time to copy everything in the Kingsman’s servers. It was an astonishing amount of information.

Once TSS had filtered through it all and the relevant department heads had looked over the information, it had been decided that they should continue as they were, on the condition that Q and D keep tabs on them and what they were doing. After V-day, the implication of what a corrupt “Arthur” figure could accomplish was clear. All in all, though, the Kingsman Agency did a fantastic job policing themselves. 

It was quite helpful that there was an organization that actually concerned itself with the good of the world and whom could act much fast than a government organization often could. 

It turned out that MI6 actually had many, many notes about the Kingsman agents in mission files. Their bespoke suit and flash gadgetry had made them stand out to MI6 field agents. A lot of missing information had been filled in and profiles were created of the Kingsman to be passed to the 00 division. They were to be listed as DNK (do not kill), but also, do not aid without orders. If they felt they had the right to interfere in global espionage, they would have to pay the same consequences that everyone eventually did.

They had gained no new tech from the information. Q-branch already put out many of the same devices, just in a much less flashy manner. They liked their operatives to blend in, after all. Also, cookie cutter didn’t work for MI6. Their agents were different, and they liked to cater to those differences, not try to mold them all into the same, interchangeable persona.

She and Tristan had been very careful not to mention the hand-grenade lighters to James or Alec. It was bad enough how often they were pestered about making a damn exploding pen. The idea of either of them wearing a signet ring was also laughable. With as often as they had their hands in electronics and they fell off of things, they’d be gloved* in no time. And an umbrella? Just best not to think about the agents’ reactions to being asked to carry one of those monstrosities around.

Alright, she could admit that the shot-gun shell shooting pistol was pretty great, but that was all. Yes, she’d made one for herself and for Alec. James hadn’t been interested and Tristan left that kind of weaponry to her.

She smiled, thinking about the men in her life. They had all fallen into a comfortable existence, together. They were all close and there was only the occasional breakdown when one of them freaked right the fuck out about having so many people to trust. They learned to deal with it, and were, mostly, a giant love fest of over-trained, over-intelligent killers. 

She and Tristan seemed to form the central point of their group with James and Alec orbiting them. They got closer all the time, and their relationships with each other were strong. They still maintained their own living spaces, but Devina’s decoy flat had been convert into spare rooms for James and Alec while Tristan occupied her own room more often than not. Thankfully, none of them had a concept of monogamy, so the occasional fling was completely fine with all of them. Sex and love were far from the same thing, for any of them, and sometimes, there was a certain relief to be found in no strings sex with someone that you _didn’t_ think was going to try to double cross or kill you.

Happily, with their own spaces (even Devi had a new secondary flat), no one ever brought someone back to Devina’s place. It would have been a disaster for all parties. 

On that thought, with a smile playing about her lips, she jogged up the steps to Kingsman Tailors and let herself in the door.

}*{

As she stepped into the shop, Devina let her eyes sweep the store front and note the furnishings, doorways, personnel. She matched the actual space to the plans she had in her head, making sure not to linger on the security measures she knew where in place. She had to give them props, they were cleverly hidden. If she hadn’t already known about them they would have taken some time to spot. She smiled more broadly as her gaze settled on the fellow behind the counter.

“Good morning,” he hesitated a moment and ended on a question, “sir?”

 _Oh,_ she thought, _well spotted._ ”Good morning,” she smiled, nodding acceptance at the slight question as she approached the counter.

He smiled at her, “How can I help you?”

“Well,” she made a small gesture at him and he told her his name, “Andrew, I am looking for a new tailor. I have heard wonderful things about Kingsman suits. Tell me, do you only do suits, or can you be persuaded for more,” she gestured to what she was wearing, “every day wear?”

She, as per usual, was wearing tailored clothing. It was subtle, but she did love well-made things, though her combinations sometimes made people cringe. Today was not quite one of those days. She had on a pair of dark grey trousers with a cobalt pinstripe. The fabric was matched perfectly over the “pocket” that hid access to the sheath on her calf. Her top was a modified waistcoat of the same cobalt with a mandarin collar. The buttons were small and numerous, allowing a better fit and no gaps in the fabric. Over all of it, she had on a fitted, hip length, light jacket that she’d left open.  
She watched him take in her ensemble and cringe a little bit when he got to her work boots. They were well cared for, but still obviously scuffed and well used. He looked up in time to see her cheeky grin and he smiled ruefully at having been caught out.

“I would apologize for my appalling footwear, but I do love my boots,” she said to him, her grin turning into a genuine smile, “and I do need industrial safety boots for my work. So, what do you think?”

“We have recently begun branching out into day wear and, if you will forgive me, more feminine cuts to our clothing. I think we might be able to come to terms. Would you like to have a seat and we can discuss it further?” Andrew proposed.

“That would be lovely, Andrew. My name is Devina Fredericks,” she told him and they shook hands. He made to take her jacket and she slid it down her shoulders before catching the collar and handing it over. “No apologies are necessary, I am quite practical about my form.”

She saw him take note of the well-toned muscle revealed by her sleeveless top and the double thickness of the material. It was needed to hide the sheath down her spine, and she could see the curiosity in his eyes about the cut of her clothing. She stepped toward the leather couch for guests and he spoke in an off-hand tone as he went to hang her jacket.

“Can I offer you some tea?” he asked.

“More than acceptable,” she agreed as she took a seat.

He returned with a tea service and they chat lightly until the tea was ready to serve. Their talking turned back to the task at hand and they began to discuss the type of clothing and how many pieces Devina would be wanting. She asked if she could bring some of her more casual pieces in for them to examine, as she didn’t think that Kingsman wanted to work from anyone else’s patterns, nor did she have any intention of asking her tailor to part with them. Their work was proprietary, after all.

They made arrangements for her to return in two days’ time to drop off some of her things, look at fabrics and for her measurements to be taken. They finished up their tea and wrapped up the conversation. Devina was pleased with the progress that she’d made. Her internal smile was much, much wider than the one that she showed to Andrew. 

She knew that Kingsman vetted all of their clients. It would show up that she worked for Universal Exports and any spy organization worth their salt would know that was a front for MI6. She knew that they wouldn’t find out more than that and that she owned a coffee shop. She briefly debated just giving Andrew a business card and decided to go ahead.

When she did, she told him, “Please do call my personal number on the back for any appointment scheduling or changes. I don’t like to bother my staff with my _personal_ quirks.”

She made sure that she stressed personal. Hopefully, they wouldn’t bring her visit to MI6’s attention.

Her grin had blossomed on her way out the door. Andrew, truly a gentleman, hadn’t looked at her card until she had turned away. The window in the door reflected his astonishment, however, and she almost broke into a chuckle. 

On her way back to the tube, she pulled out her work phone and pulled up the program that tracked attacks against MI6 firewalls. She was confident they wouldn’t get through, but it would be fun to shut them down as quickly as they attacked. 

She loved being a boffin.


	2. Expectations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Devina returns to Kingsman not knowing what to expect but knowing what she'd like.

Of course, she had to tell Tristan. They were not a couple that kept secrets from one another, especially now that they had equal clearance levels. He was just as in the know as she was and vice versa.

He took it well, with just a hint of exasperation, because _of course_ she couldn’t leave Kingsman alone. They could have just stolen the formula and designs for the fabric they used in their Knight’s bespoke suits, she argued, but what would be the fun in that? Wouldn’t it be better if they had the cloth willingly? Besides, she was leaving MI6 out of the negotiations. 

He knew that they couldn’t touch MI6. Wouldn’t, if they knew what was good for them. The fact the Devina had been in their shop was enough to let them know they were found out, and he was confident in her ability to read and control the situation. If they hurt of killed her, they would be answering to MI6’s three deadliest personnel. Personally. There would be nothing they could do to save themselves.

He couldn’t deny her the fun, that was certain. She’d been remarkably sedate, lately, and he’d been a bit worried, truth be told. It was nice to see her getting into some mischief. Potential fallout aside, this was very like her. Well, maybe the potential fallout made it even more exactly like her.

He figured it would take her a month or two to have her way with the agency and know it inside and out. He wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to recruit her. And she’d work with them, too, if only on the same basis that she worked with Mycroft. He laughed out loud at the idea of their Arthur negotiating with M. 

She pestered the joke out of him and she joined his laughter with bright peals of her own. 

}*{

When Devina returned to Kingsman, she found herself almost giddy with anticipation. She had _no_ idea what she was going to walk into. She was completely winging it, and it was glorious. The last time she’d worked without a plan, well, she’d set a house on fire.

She almost danced her way up the steps to the door, alert, but made sure to stay relaxed. She had a garment bag slung over her shoulder, the clothing that she’d promised Andrew she would bring for examination. Tristan had agreed to keep them occupied in the maze of MI6’s firewalls while she had spent the the time building a new palm-print encoded gun for 004. This time, it was a sniper rifle and a bit more difficult to get the sensors aligned correctly where the weapon would be gripped. They would be testing it on the range tomorrow and she was looking forward to it. New guns were always fun for the double ohs, as well as q-branch. Well, her and Q, anyway.

They were working on making the biometric recognition faster. After all, agents couldn’t always be holding their guns. Sometimes they had to draw and fire, immediately. They couldn’t necessarily wait the second that it took for the reader to recognize the print. Thinking about the problem centered her a bit and allowed her to be calm when she walked through the door of Kingsman.

Reigning in her usual hundred mile and hour thoughts, she set herself to optimistic caution and took in the shop front. _Ah_ , she thought, _they’ve given him backup, today._ She repressed her grin at the sight of Miss Roxanne Morton chatting at the front counter with Andrew.

She smiled at the blank look of astonishment on Roxanne’s face as she took in Devina’s outfit for the day. Andrew hid it better, his own look speculative as he observed that even her obvious work clothing was handmade. 

“Good afternoon, sir,” Andrew addressed her.

“Good afternoon, Andrew, how are you this fine day?” she asked him in return as she draped the garment bag she carried over the cleared counter space.

“Doing very well, sir. Allow me to introduce my colleague, Miss Morton. She will be taking your measurements, today.”

She turned to where Roxanne had finally stopped gaping at her and held her hand out to shake, “Hello, Miss Morton, pleasure to meet you.”

Roxanne returned her handshake with a firm grasp, “Mr. Fredericks, the pleasure is mine, I assure you.” Her eyes were shrewd as she tried to catalog what she could about Devina.

Devina grinned and took her hand back, “Please, both of you, call me Devina. I am not much for such formalities.”  
Andrew gave a slight smile and nodded at the garment bag, “Are these the items that we discussed?”

“Indeed they are, Andrew, I hope they will be useful,” she said, turning so that she was faced midway between the two. 

Andrew lifted the bag and said, “Why don’t you go with Miss Morton to be measured and I will take these to the back and look them over. After that, we will take a look at some fabric samples.”

She nodded in acceptance and looked at Roxanne to lead the way. Roxanne smiled at her and showed her to fitting room one. Devina hid a grin. It would be interesting to see how this new, inexperienced Knight reacted to the revealing of her usual weaponry. She really had the minimum, today, but that was still more that what most people carried.

Once the door closed behind them, Devina looked around and sat on the bench to remove her boots while Roxanne opened a drawer to pull out a measuring tape. 

While she busied herself with unlacing her boots, Devina asked, “Should I leave my sheathes on for the initial measurements?”

When there was not an answer, she looked up and saw that Roxanne had frozen and she waited a moment before she prodded, “Miss Morton?”

Roxanne blinked at her a couple of times before responding, not quite successful in her attempt at composure, “I’m not really sure,” she continued almost to herself, “I haven’t done measurements for the Kni-”here she cut herself off, twitching. “I’ll go check with Andrew and be back in a moment.”

Devina nodded at her and she slipped back out the door while Devina kept unlacing her boots and stripped down to her panties and bra, leaving her weapons in place for the moment. She knew that they would need to take additional measurements to make the adjustments for her to access her weapons through the clothing.

She spared a thought for her tattoo, before she dismissed it as trivial. They would have her likeness spread through all their personnel at this point. She was sure that whoever was monitoring the surveillance for the fitting room would be taking down her scars as identifying marks, anyway.

She looked at herself in the mirror and smirked, knowing that she was actually in an elevator. She took in her image as she waited for Roxanne to come back into the room. The mirror was overly large, but it gave her a vantage on herself that she’d not had in quite some time. She looked good, she decided.

She was still incredibly fit. Ripped, some would say, as she had little body fat and her musculature was on display under her skin. Her early athletics had shaped her well. She had kept her gymnast’s flexibility, but her height had helped to lean out the muscle that she carried. She was still thicker through her thighs and hips than most women her height, but that was good for her. She was sturdy, well balanced and able to put a force behind her limbs that few men could and even fewer women.

She trailed her fingers over a few of the scars that she had acquired over the years. Thankfully, only one fully caught bullet, in her leg, from which she’d fully recovered, and one sword through the gut. She turned and craned her neck to see the exit wound. Mitsuo had done a fantastic job. He’d missed all her organs and it had healed quickly and completely. She never did tell anyone what that had been about and had no plans to do so. The rest were comprised of knife wounds and some bullet grazes.

Her eyes drifted to her tattoo. It was still bright and colorful. It was of jungle foliage, flowing up from the cleft and swell of her buttocks, brightly colored plants and flowers with three different tree frogs scattered among the leaves. She smirked, happy with how well it was keeping its color and how few people would understand the hidden meaning in the pictures. Almost everything in the tattoo was deadly, in some way. Poisonous.

Of course, while her hands were drifting over her form, she checked the straps and fit of her weapons. She had just relaxed and turned around to face forward, back still to the mirror when Roxanne knocked briskly on her way back into the room. Devina held her smirk as once again Roxanne’s composure fled. 

She had managed to get the door closed, thought that was mostly by reflex. She stood just inside, staring. She took in Devina’s figure first, flickering up her legs, up her abdomen and over her breasts. Before she made it up to Devina’s face, her eyes went to the mirror, avidly taking in the whole picture. With a blink, Roxanne flushed, forcing herself to take in the weaponry. The boot knife around her left ankle, the full sheath around her right calf, the modified spine sheath/holster that hooked around her ribs rather than to a belt. It was designed to fit lower to the ribs for quicker draw, rather than having to draw around the breast. Instead of guns under her arms, today Devina had attached the holsters that held three small throwing knives on each side.

Roxanne finally flicked her eyes to Devina’s face, flushing darker as she took in the slight smile and raised eyebrow.

“I must apologize,” she began and Devina chuckled, lightly.

“No, don’t, please. Rather flattering, that,” Devina responded with a smile, knowing the kind of further training the young woman would likely receive after this. “Should I remove these?” she asked, tapping the strap around her ribs.

Roxanne smiled shyly in return, “Yes, please. We will need initial measurements before we measure over the sheaths.”

“Alright,” Devina responded before she efficiently unstrapped and wrapped her things into a bundle with the boot knife on top and accessible by her on the bench.

Devina truly hoped that Roxanne knew better than to think she was any less dangerous due to being unarmed. She moved to meet her in the center of the room to be measured and her posture was open and relaxed. Roxanne betrayed her nerves in small ways that Devina noted but didn’t point out. She was shocked that they had put such a green Knight in with her. She supposed it was to gauge her own intentions. There were security measures in the room that would take care of her if she attacked Roxanne.

There was only one moment when Devina allowed Roxanne to see her inner predator, and that was when she was measuring around her neck. Roxanne tightened the tape just enough for Devina’s gaze to sharpen and bore into Roxanne’s eyes. It was immediately clear that she hadn’t meant to do it as she swallowed nervously and flicked her eyes down to the tape as she let it go slack. Her hand shook as she took it up again and remeasured under Devina’s watchful eyes.

When Roxanne stepped back, it was with a small, almost unnoticeable sigh. Devina smiled at her and asked, “Would you like the rest of the measurements now, or would you like to wait?”

She had to hand it to Roxanne, she was brave and determined. The young woman _knew_ that she was being tested and judged against and unknown. This was a task that she’d been assigned and she obviously wanted to see it through. 

Roxanne glanced over at the bundle of knives and straps, “Let’s go ahead and get them, now. Might as well, while you are here.”

Once again, Devina agreed and she was strapped up in less time than it had taken her to remove them in the first place. Her body held a little more tension as the young woman moved around her weapons. It would be easy for her to draw them off of Devina’s body, but she made no move to do so. She started at the top and worked her way down while Devina hid a smile as Roxanne’s hands subtly stroked her weapons. Remarkable young woman. She’d be amazing once seasoned; right now she still gave too much away.

“Thank you, Devina,” Roxanne said as she straightened and stepped away. She looked about to say something else but clamped her mouth shut.

“Thank you, Miss Morton,” Devina smiled and stepped into her trousers before sitting to lace her boots back on. “Was there something you wanted to ask me?”

“Can, can you demonstrate the draw on the knives?” Roxanne asked, hesitating.

Devina’s brows went up as she considered. It wasn’t so much that it was a bold question, they’d need to see it, but it was almost foolish for her to ask and unknown entity to arm themselves while closeted together. It would also be foolish for Devina to do so while not knowing if anyone watching had heard the question. She didn’t want to be downed for a misunderstanding.

As she pulled on her vest, she asked, “Do you have much experience with long knives?”

Roxanne shook her head in the negative.

“Do you have anyone who does?”

Roxanne nodded shortly, her face closed off.

Devina read it all in that look. Roxanne was interested in long knives as weaponry and she’d been rebuffed when she’d approached whomever it was that had experience. Either because she was young and green, or because she was a woman, she wasn’t sure, but it had made Roxanne ask Devina. She sighed.

“Well, let’s see what we can do to get you a demonstration, then, and then we will talk about you learning, yes?” Devina smiled at Roxanne.

Devina almost laughed as Roxanne’s face lit up in eagerness. She doubted that she’d ever been quite so naive. Yes, she would have no troubles teaching this Knight the art, but convincing Kingsman to allow it would be a different matter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is encouraged and more than welcome.


	3. Meet the King

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Devina gets to meet Arthur, aka Harry Hart. And so of course she meets Eggsy, as well.

When they emerged from the fitting room, they were both smiling. Devina, because she relished the idea of teaching again and having something to offer to Kingsman; Roxanne, because she hadn’t really thought through all the consequences of getting what she wanted from an outside source.

Devina pushed it aside. She might be willing to teach Roxanne, but Roxanne was someone else’s protege. Her mentor would have to be the one to take her to task for giving Devina such an obvious bargaining chip. For allowing her composure to be lost to physical appeal. For not being able to hide her nerves. All of those things would need to be addressed and tested.

Andrew was waiting for them, back at the counter. He smiled a small, professional smile and thanked Roxanne, taking the measurements from her before dismissing her. 

Roxanne smiled, “Devina, it’s been a pleasure, I look forward to your fittings.”

“Miss Morton, thank you for your time,” Devina reached out and shook her hand again.

With that, Roxanne left and Devina turned back to Andrew. He just observed her for a moment and she allowed it, patience being a virtue and all that. Being able to wait people out was something she was excellent at. Unless it was Tristan. That fucker had always had her number, though. 

She knew that her eyes were shining with humor while she waited for Andrew to speak. She saw a muscle jump in his jaw before he broke out into a smile, nodding at her win.

“Mr-” He corrected himself when she raised her eyebrow at him, “Devina, our proprietor would like to meet you.”

“Is that usual?” she asked him.

“Not at all,” Andrew almost smirked but she thought he controlled it admirably.

She gave in and chuckled when he didn’t expand on his answer. 

“Into the lion’s den, then?” she asked him, smiling.

“Such as it is, yes,” he agreed before adding, “would you be opposed to leaving your weapons?”

“I would,” she responded, making sure to keep her posture relaxed.

Andrew hummed at her and gestured for her to follow him around the counter and up the stairs. They rounded a corner at the top and bypassed a set of double doors as they moved down the hallway to anther door that Andrew knocked on before he opened it for her and waved her through.

“Sir,” he said, smiling at her before he turned and headed back the way they came.

Across from the door was a man, Harry Hart, she knew, sitting behind a rather beautiful, heavy wooden desk. There were two mid-sized wing backed chairs sitting in front of it and she knew exactly what to expect when she stepped through the door. She just wasn’t sure which one it would be. 

She smiled, deliberately, at the man at the desk, who was looking at her with a neutral expression before she stepped through the door. She didn’t react in the slightest when from her left a hand with a gun in pointed at her head from a few inches away.

She rolled her eyes at Harry and turned just her head to face the person with the gun. 

“Hello, Mr. Unwin,” she said to him and saw his face twitch in surprise. “It’s not very gentlemanly to point a gun at someone when you have no intention to fire. Whatever would your mentor say?” she turned back to Harry as she asked the question with a quirked brow.

“Who says I don’t intend to fire?” Gary asked, his voice harshly defensive, keeping the gun up and pointed at her.

“A lesson, if I may?” she asked Harry. He nodded at her minutely and she was in motion before he had finished the gesture.

She spun toward Gary and shifted her body to the inside of his arm while reaching up for the gun. He wasn’t quick enough to get it out of her reach before she had a hold of it and used his own grip on the gun to over extend his wrist and then his elbow. Because she didn’t want to actually damage him, she let go while he was still bowed up trying to relieve the pressure on his arm. His focus was in the wrong place and she was able to easily sweep his legs out from under him. He landed flat on his back, hard. She moved a few steps away from him as he quickly rebounded to his feet.

“Do you understand the lesson, Mr. Unwin?” she asked him as he turned to face her again and started toward her.

“What?” he asked, startled. His steps faltered for a moment as his eyes flicked toward Harry. 

“Shall I continue?” she asked, not taking her eyes from Gary.

“He seems to believe that you should,” came the amused voice of Harry.

She nodded and grinned openly at Gary and his face hardened as he faced her. 

“Guns are a ranged weapon. If you are intending to use them, you use them from further away where you can gauge and follow the intent of your target,” she explained. “Too close, as you just experience, and you get your ass handed to you by someone with _experience_.” She purposefully didn’t say “training.” Training meant nothing if you didn’t have experience.

He scoffed at her, “Experience, I’ve got experience.”

Her grin turned predatory, “Show me.”

She had seen all the footage that the Kingsman had on this man. He’d helped to avert V-day, and she could admit to herself that she was mildly enamored of this cheeky little shit who’d lucked into saving the world. But, it meant that she’d seen him train, spar and fight. He wouldn’t surprise her nearly as much as he would most people.

In and unfamiliar place, with unfamiliar people, she decided not to play too long. In the end, it took her no time at all to take him down. He fell for one of her favorite and easiest tricks. He stopped trying to get out of her choke hold while she was speaking to him. He instinctively stopped to listen and in the end, he passed out. She lowered him to the floor and rolled him onto his side. 

She chuckled as she stood straight and straightened her clothing before she looked over at Harry behind his desk. She walked over to one of the chairs and remained standing in front of his desk.

“Hello,” she said, “I’m Devina Fredericks. Andrew said that you wanted to meet with me.”

Harry stood and offered his hand across the desk, “Yes, my name is Harry Hart, but I have a feeling that you know that.”

She smiled as she shook his hand, “Yes, I do. May I sit?”

Their handshake over, he gestured to the chairs while taking his own seat, “Please do.”

}*{

He was, Harry realized, thoroughly bemused.

He wasn’t sure what he should make of this woman sitting across his desk. She was smiling, her posture was open and she hadn’t protested anything that had happened this day, at all. She was relaxed and didn’t seem to care that, less than five minutes before, she’d had a gun pointed at her head. Her expression before she’d come through the door had told him that she was even expecting it.

And then there was that she’d laid Eggsy out in about a minute. She’d been correct, he had needed the lesson. He’d gotten over-confident, and maybe they had all allowed his success on V-day go to his head. 

He’d been watching her since she’d arrived in the building. Saw her interact with both Andrew and Roxanne. Watched Roxanne lose her composure not once, but twice and then hand her a leverage against her on a silver platter. He could only be relieved that Devina didn’t seem inclined to take advantage.

He was brought out of his thoughts by her asking him, “So, might I inquire as to what all this has been about? Seems mighty unfair to pit your two most green against someone completely unknown.”

He had to bite back his grin, she was as cheeky as Eggsy, just tempered by what she likely would call experience, “We were determining your purpose.”

She laughed at him. 

“No, no you were not,” she said. “You were being an asshole. Seriously, Harry, what would you have done if I had freaked out about the gun?”

He deadpanned at her, “With all the knives, I gambled that you wouldn’t.”

She rolled her eyes, “There are plenty of heavily armed people who don’t know the first thing about how to use them, much less how to react to others leveling guns at them.”

“True enough, but you work of Universal Exports,” he reminded her.

“Indeed, I do,” she smiled. “But that means little. What concerns you, is the gap between my return to England and now, yes? That, and how very little information there is in my records.”

He took a moment to appreciate her blunt manner. She reminded him a bit of Merlin, so far. Calling him out on bullshit was something of a calling for Merlin, after all. He started to agree with her and was nodding when they both turned to Eggsy on the floor as he moaned quietly.

He noticed the surprise on Devina’s face in peripheral vision as Eggsy groaned and flopped onto his back. He looked at her as she looked at him askance.

“ _That’s_ how he wakes up after he’s been rendered unconscious?” she asked, disbelief in her tone. “Has he been out since V-day?”

Harry looked taken aback as he answered, “Yes, he has.”

“Wassit?” Eggsy mumbled as he sat up and looked blearily between the two people in chairs in front of him. 

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Devina snapped, affecting irritation, “speak intelligently or keep your mouth shut.”

Harry looked at her sharply but quickly relaxed. He could see the humor in her eyes as she looked at the young man on the floor. He knew that Eggsy wouldn’t see it, but that was neither here nor there. When Eggsy finally focused on them, Harry was smiling at Devina. 

“Who the fuck _are_ you?” Eggsy asked her, and with that, Devina was in motion, again.

She was up, out of her chair and had Eggsy by the ear, much like a mother with a recalcitrant child and pulled him up, while he howled in protest. She was moving him too quickly for him to do more the keep his feet under him as she shoved him out the door. 

“Stay out here, I need to speak with your boss, Mr. Unwin,” she told him coldly before she slammed the door in his face.

Harry started to laugh. He really couldn’t help it, the look on Eggsy’s face had been priceless as she herded him out. He wondered if Eggsy would _stay_ out. He heard a bang on the door.

“You alright in there, Harry?” Eggsy shouted.

Devina chuckled and pulled the door back open. “Mr. Unwin, you are having a terrible time with manners today, aren’t you?” she asked rhetorically before she asked, “Harry, would you like Mr. Unwin to stay for our conversation?”

“Yes, do let him stay, he might learn something,” Harry said with a smile playing about his lips.

“Alright,” she said as she walked back to the chair she had vacate and sat down. She turned around to look at Eggsy standing in the doorway. “Stop sputtering,” she told him. “Come in and shut the door behind you.”

Eggsy slowly closed the door and ventured to the seat next to Devina and looked at Harry. Harry gestured him to the chair, “Yes, sit. It seems that we have much to discuss. And by ‘we,’ I mean Devina and I. You keep your mouth shut and listen.”

Eggsy started to protest but at Harry’s look he settled down into his chair looking put-out at the way he was being treated. Devina was chuckling, again and she reached over to pat his knee. He jumped and straightened, looking at her warily. She wasn’t looking at him, however, she was looking at Harry.

Harry saw the gesture and looked at Devina in inquiry. She just grinned, unabashed and allowed him his conclusion. She like the boy. He had a feeling that she would be harder on him for it, rather than lenient the way that he had been. But, back to business.

“Devina,” he began, “what brings you to Kingsman Tailors?”

“Harry,” she said, “shouldn’t you introduce us?”

“Right,” he said, blushing lightly. It wasn’t often that he forgot his manners. “Devina Fredericks, this is Gary Unwin. Gary this is Devina.”

She turned and held out her hand, and Eggsy shook it, only slightly hesitating. “Call me Eggsy,” he said. 

She grinned, “Call me Devi.” She let go and turned back to Harry. “I really did just come for clothing,” she grinned. “My tailor is getting old and cranky and less inclined to put up with my eccentricities.”

“Eccentricities?” Harry asked for clarification.

She sighed and gave him a look that said he was making her say what he already knew. “Yes. I don’t imagine that he has many clients who need clothing fit over so many weapons. He is becoming less inclined toward discretion and more inclined toward refusal.

“I thought Kingsman might be a good option. I knew that you vetted all your clients, so I tried to be as upfront as I could be when I made my initial appointments.”

“That was upfront?” Henry raised and eyebrow.

“It was very upfront, and you know it. It’s not like I can _tell_ you anything. I assumed that you would know who I work for and you would understand that I am not trying to infiltrate.”

Eggsy took that moment to ask, “Wait a mo’, who do you work for?”

Devina looked at him, smiled and said, “I work for Universal Exports.”

Harry smirked and said at the same time, “She works for MI6.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is encouraged and very welcome.


	4. Subtlety?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For spies and ninjas, everyone certainly lacks subtlety. Eggsy and Roxanne compare notes.

Devina rolled her eyes at Harry. So much for subtlety. Eggsy had sat back in his chair with a rather blank expression on his face. She shrugged, he wasn’t her protege, either. Let Harry deal with his lack of professionalism.

“Well,” she said to Harry, ignoring Eggsy for now, “I need to emphasize that I am not here on behalf of Universal Exports. I am here for myself. They have nothing to do with this.”

“So MI6 didn’t send you?,” Harry repeated, “and you are here for clothing.” He couldn’t help the sarcasm that colored his statement.

“Of course,” she grinned, leaning back in her chair, “Kingsman is known to be exceptional tailors and I have specific requests that I believe you can accommodate. Although,” she winked at him, “I am always open to exploring new relationships.”

“You?” Harry asked. 

“Yes,” she said, “me.”

“And where do you propose that we start?” He asked, expression once again neutral.

Her smile remained, “I would like to help Miss Morton in her quest to learn long knives.” She held up a hand to forestall his next question. “I know I will have to show you that I am qualified. I would like to spar with the person that turned her down.

“Also, I have no intention of doing so anywhere but under your very watchful eyes. I don’t want you thinking that I might subvert her for any reason, and you can protest the thought, but you aren’t nearly so foolish as to think I’d believe you.”

Harry cocked his head at her, “What, exactly, do you know about us?”

Her eyes gleamed with humor, “Everything that can be learned with out meeting you.”

Harry blanched and Eggsy finally put in a thought, “What do you do for MI6? Are you one of them double-oh agents?”

She started straight at Harry when she answered, “I am a senior technician in the Engineering and R and D departments.”

Harry arched a brow at her, “Should I expect to see others with our things?”

“No, we have plenty of our own things,” she replied with a grin.

“That doesn’t explain your affinity for wearing your weaponry,” Harry remarked. He wanted further explanation, she knew, one that she wouldn’t just give to Eggsy. He’d have to work for it.

“May I borrow your tablet for a moment,” she asked.

Harry pulled a tablet computer out of his desk and pushed it over to her. He did not activate it. She smiled at the small test of her ability. She picked up the small computer and powered it on. She noted that it wasn’t biometric protected. Good. She used their own built in security bypass to get passed the locked screen. They’d put it into place after they’d been unable to access Harry’s feed while he’d been in a coma.

She navigate the system easily, pulling up the relevant file. Once she had it up and open, she passed the tablet back to Harry, her face showing no levity. She watched his face avidly as he began to scan the information in front of him.

“I cleaned up the information. It is now much more accurate. I took out the things that should not be credit to me and added a few that should have been,” she said when he looked up at her. When his eyes flicked to Eggsy and back to her she flicked a negative gesture at him which he acknowledged. They remained silent as he perused the information on Sukoshi Yami.

“This information is far from complete,” Harry commented after a few minutes, clearing the screen and shooting an admonishing look at Eggsy when he gestured to be shown the tablet.

“Of course,” she acknowledged.

“I wouldn’t have guessed you to be so young,” Harry remarked, settling back in his chair. 

“No one would, not really, but I became that when I was sixteen,” she told him.

“And what happened when you were twenty-two,” he asked her.

She smiled a bit sadly at him, “Devina Fredericks died,” was all she said.

Right about then, Eggsy regained his voice, if not his composure, “What the fuck are you two on about, then?”

She glanced over to where he was a picture of confusion in his chair, smiling. He’d learn. He had to, or he'd just be another dead spy.

“Nothing that concerns you, young man,” Harry told him, showing his own cheek in his grin. “Be a dear and round up Merlin for us, would you? And let Andrew know that we can move forward on the designs for Mr. Fredericks.”

“Mr. Fredericks?” Eggsy asked as he stood to do as he was asked.

Devina waved it off, “I know what I look like,” she addressed Harry. “Female pronouns are actually much safer for me. Less noticeable.”

Harry nodded, “Understandable. Eggsy, please relate this information to Andrew when you give him the news.”

Eggsy nodded in the affirmative, even while the confusion showed on his face when he excused himself and strode out the door.

Devina grinned at Harry, “I do hope he takes the opportunity to learn something from Andrew when he relates that.”

Harry nodded in agreement, “As do I. Merlin is on site, I believe, so should be here soon. We will discuss Miss Morton’s education when he arrives. Do you have some time?”

“I do,” she said, “about two hours, tops, though.”

While they waited, they make a little more than small talk. They somehow settled on discussing the off the wall things they had seen around the world.

}*{

Eggsy obediently trotted down the stairs in search of Andrew and to let Merlin know that Harry was ready for him with their “guest.” He was wondering what, exactly, she was when he stopped short behind the counter where Andrew was sorting through pocket squares.

“Eggsy,” Andrew greeted him with a smile, “How did the introduction go?”

Eggsy blushed as he thought about how he’d made the acquaintance of the floor, twice. “Fine, I guess. They are still up there and Arthur wants Merlin to join them.”

Andrew nodded, smirking like he knew something that Eggsy didn’t, and put his glasses on to tell Merlin that Arthur was waiting on him. It wasn’t long before Merlin exit fitting room three and made his way to the stairs.

He nodded at Andrew and broke into a rare grin when he saw Eggsy.

“So, Eggsy, do you like our new friend?” Merlin asked, smiling like a shark.

Eggsy felt himself flush again, still confused by his reactions and inability to either speak civilly or behave like a person of intelligence around her, so far. Knowing that Merlin had likely seen it all didn’t help matters.

“Yeah, I guess. She’s different,” Eggsy said. Merlin just clapped him on the shoulder as he went on passed them and up the stairs.

Andrew tutted a bit and said, “He, Eggsy. He is different.”

“Oh, right,” Eggsy said, “I was supposed to tell you. She mentioned that female pronouns were safer for her. She said, and I am quoting here, they are less noticeable. Arthur asked me to pass it on to you. And also that it was alright to go ahead with her designs.”

Andrew looked at him for a long moment before he nodded, “I can understand that. It must be difficult for her,” the last said in a musing tone as he went back to sorting the cloth.

“What’s difficult?” Eggsy wanted to know. He had a feeling that he was missing something obvious and wanted to know more than he was embarrassed about it.

Andrew put down the fabrics and turned to fully face Eggsy. He considered him for a moment and frowned at him, less in displeasure and more in consideration.

“Eggsy,” he started, sounding more hesitant than Eggsy had ever heard him, “do you know anything about the difference between gender and identity?”

“I have a feeling by the phrasing of your question that I don’t,” Eggsy said and sighed heavily. 

Andrew smiled at him, pleased that his nimble mind seemed to be functioning again. “You need to spend some time on Google, then, before you meet with her again. She is female, yes,” Andrew said, “but she is not feminine. Considering how easily she answered to ‘sir’ and didn’t hesitate at being called ‘mister,’ she thinks of herself as masculine.”

Eggsy bit back his impulse to ask if he meant cross-dressing. It would have been a poorly made joke and she obviously did not try to hide her female attributes. He thought about it for a moment before he spoke.

“Can you recommend any good websites?”

“No,” Andrew said, as he pulled out a clean notebook and started to write, “but I can give you some things to look up.” He scrawled down several terms that Eggsy didn’t have any idea what they meant beyond their literal meaning.

“Thanks,” he said absently, losing himself in thought before he shook it off, “Oi, how did Lancelot do with her?”

Eggsy startles at Andrew’s bark of genuine laughter. 

}*{

Eggsy was laughing. He was laughing with everything he had as Roxanne was groaning into hands where she sat on the bench in fitting room two. He’d managed to get the story out of her about what happened with Devina Fredericks. He’d never seen Roxy so flustered and her blush had been priceless. Red as a tomato.

He stopped laughing when she groaned, “She had nine knives on her, Eggsy, _nine._ Two of them at least 38 centimeters!”

“Nine?” he parroted, going a bit pale as he realized that he hadn’t counted _any_ weapons, even after he’d been told that an armed unknown was coming to meet with Harry.

“ _Yes_ ,” she said, “nine. Couldn’t see any of them, could you?” she snarked at him, “gorgeous creature, isn’t she?”

“No,” he said shortly, trying to hide his own blush, now, “and that’s not why I didn’t see them.”

“Ooooh,” she chortled, “what happened?”

He sighed heavily, knowing that if he didn’t just tell her, she’d torture it out of him, or convince Merlin to show her the feeds of the encounter.

“I pointed a gun at her head and she introduced me to the floor,” he mumbled to the floor, “twice.”

When he looked up, Roxanne was just looking at him. When he smiled at her sheepishly she gave him a stern look.

“Spill,” she demanded. And, of course, he did.

Roxanne guffawed at him when he told her about his lesson and how Harry had told her to go ahead and teach him one. She laughed herself off the bench when he stammered out how he’d been escorted from the room and then let back in with another admonishment about his manners. She got a bit quiet when he told her about the veiled conversation she’d had with Harry after Devina had mentioned wanting to instruct Roxanne on knives.

“What was that about Rox?” he asked when she seemed nervous.

“She carries two long knives, Eggsy. You should see her scars and body. She is a weapon and I would bet that she can wield those that she carries better than anyone we’ve ever seen.” She nodded at him when she took in the look on his face, “yes, better than Gazelle. Better than most of us, I’d wager.”

After thinking about it for a moment, he can’t agree or disagree. She’d beaten him, yes, but there were better fighters in Kingsman. 

“So,” he said, grinning at her wickedly, “you saw her naked?”

}*{

Merlin took a deep breath before he entered the room where Devina and Harry were. He had, of course, been watching her since she entered the building. He had watched, as Harry had, while Roxanne tripped over herself. He’d seen her in the fitting room on her own and saw that she was a predator under her unassuming, open demeanor. He recognized the theme of her tattoo. The things represented were as deadly as he could only assume that she believed she was.

He was determined not to fall under he spell, as Harry seemed to have done when she disciplined Eggsy so easily. She was obviously well trained and had seemed somewhat appalled at the lack of control Eggsy had exhibited.  
He had also seen the file that she’d pulled up for Harry to look at and the ease with which she’d navigate his system. She’d done it before. That file, though, he didn’t believe it for a moment. She had found it in their system and was using it to her advantage.

There was no way that this woman was Sukoshi Yami.

He didn’t know who she was or what she was trying to accomplish, but he was confident that, between Harry and himself, they of them could get to the truth of the matter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feed back is encouraged and more than welcome.


	5. Intentions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin has questionable intentions that Devina can spot from miles away. She might be able to correct his assumptions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not gonna lie, I am a bit iffy about this chapter. Just had to get through the initial resistance, yeah?

Devina stood, as was polite, when Merlin entered the room. She stayed next to the chair that she had claimed and smiled slightly as she took in the Kingsman tech guru. She kept her lip from twitching as she thought about how this imposing man would respond to begin called such a thing.

They were introduced, they shook hands, brief and firm, before both of them took their seats on the same side of Harry’s desk. 

She kept track of him in her peripheral vision. If any of the Kingsman would be a hard sell, it was Merlin. She could see the mistrust in his frame from miles away. He not only didn’t trust her or her motives, he didn’t believe her when she stated who she was outside of MI6.

Hell, he probably didn’t believe who she said she was _in_ MI6. Not that she could hold that against him. She was a cynic, as well, and she knew that by marching herself in the front door of Kingsman, declaring who she was and worked for could be counted as incredibly naive and fairly stupid. (Or, as a terribly clever way to try and get them to drop their guard. There was no winning with spies, every motive was ulterior.)

The truth was, she was neither. It would take some time for them to figure it out. She sighed inwardly and began to pull on some of her more esoteric abilities. The things never spoken of with anyone other than her Shihan. The hardest lesson to learn. Something that the technophile would never believe in, but the wild Scotsman would. Something that Harry would later brush off as natural to the situation.

She started to twist and twitch the emotional atmosphere in the room, playing with perceptions as she went. She felt something in her ease as she loosened her hold on accepted reality. She rarely did this, and it felt good to stretch.

Merlin was speaking to her, “So, you work for MI6? Doing what?”

She smiled at him, “I work in the Engineering and R&D departments at Universal Exports, yes.”

“In what capacity?” he asks, blatantly questioning her status. “What are we supposed to take from this ‘senior technician’ position on your card?”

“Exactly that,” she responded, voice cool. “That I have seniority and I am a technician.”

“Seniority? You aren’t even thirty-five, how do you have seniority in the Quartermaster branch of MI6?” he pounces on what he sees as a lie.

Here she laughs, though it is not a warm sound.

“Merlin,” she said to him while Harry looked on, a little perplexed by Merlin’s show of hostility. They were both feeling the effects of her manipulation, anxiety bordering on fear, one trying to cover it with calm and the other with temper, “you speak as though I have to answer you. I assure you, I do not.”

He narrowed his eyes at her, “You will answer this ridiculous claim that you are Sukoshi Yami.”

His glare just got hotter when she leaned back in her chair, idly looking about the room. She was smiling a little and spoke in a very bland, conversational tone.

“Why do you think that I am not?” she asked, still not looking at either of them.

She finally leveled her gaze on Merlin and he visibly flinched, “If you are about to say something about my age or my ethnicity, I suggest you think about it a bit longer.”

}*{

Merlin couldn’t say what it was, but he felt a menace about her that he hadn’t before. He’d thought he’d seen the predator in her, but when she leveled her eyes on him, he flinched. They were burning with a banked, well controlled, destructive fire. 

And he had been going to say something about her youth, possibly about her ethnicity, even her gender, but her words made him think. There was absolutely no information in their files, nothing he’d ever heard, that contained a physical description of Sukishi Yami. Everything attributed to the figure was whispered after the fact. No witnesses, only stories.

As her gaze continued to bore into him, she smiled. _Fuck,_ he thought, _she’s a demon._ He refused any other words that came to mind. Other than her eyes, there was no warmth about her. Her smile was just skin pulling over muscle and bone, shaping her face into a pleasant mask.

He was still reeling when she spoke to him, again. 

“Merlin,” she said, calm and devoid of emotion but resonating in his head, “I want you to think about how you feel right now.” She shook her head in the negative when he made to speak. “No, don’t tell me, just feel it, acknowledge it and understand that it is coming from me.”

He shivered in his chair, feeling a sense of impending death and panic at the thought that he could do nothing about it. If she choose to kill him, he would just die. It wasn’t rational or sound thinking and completely unlike him, but her words seemed to sink into his mind and pull these things out of it.

“Now,” she said, leaning toward him as he shrank back. She held out a hand, palm up, in between them. She brought her fingers together and a loud snap shot through the room. 

He slumped back into his chair. The anxiety, the fear, the imminent death and panic were gone in a heartbeat.

“How do you feel now?” she asked, voice relaxed and, if not warm, at least open to continuing in their company. 

He straightened and looked at her. Her posture was relaxed, she was smiling at him and he could see the humor dancing in her eyes. He swallowed audibly. 

“Merlin,” Harry questioned, “are you alright?”

Merlin cleared his throat and looked at Harry before answering, “Yeah, yes, I am.”

He looked over at Devina again and she winked at him. He blinked in return, not quite sure what to say, or if he had a right to say anything.

“I think,” Devina said, “that we should let that matter rest. The fact is, there is nothing that can be done or said to definitively prove who Sukoshi Yami is. By anyone. Let’s just let it be.

“Who I am, or am not, outside of Universal Exports really has no bearing. I was attempting to tell you that I am qualified to spar with whomever to demonstrate that I could, and am quite willing to, educate Miss Morton on using long knives for fighting.”

Merlin wanted to protest, but he was still reeling from what he’d just experienced. It didn’t seem possible. He’d walked into the room utterly confident that she was a fraud and a liar. Now, he was far from sure. He supposed he could only watch and see.

“I agree to the spar. After that, we can decided if you are indeed, able to teach Roxanne anything,” Merlin conceded.

}*{

Harry looked back and forth between Devina and Merlin, concerned. He’d thought for a minute that they were going to come to blows. And not in a teasing lesson, either, as had happened with Eggsy, but real “I’m trying my best to kill you” blows. He felt that he'd have been unable to do anything but watch.

While he was wary about Devina being here, he wasn’t openly hostile. Harry was willing to give her a chance, at least. They could certainly keep tabs on her interactions with the different Kingsman, but there was no need for such open aggression.

She was correct, certainly, there was absolutely no way to prove that she was _that person_. He understood both her reason for telling them, sort of, and her reason for not wanting to discuss it further. If she was and it got out, she would be hounded until she was dead. If she wasn’t and it got out that she was claiming to be, she would be dead much faster.

It was quite a risk she had taken.

He set it aside for the moment, he was certain they would learn plenty about her over time. For now, business, of sorts.

“Alright, so you wish to spar with Geraint. We can arrange that,” Harry said.

Merlin looked at Harry and back to Devina before he said, “We would have you come to our training facilities in UKHQ. You will be under escort at all times.” There was no room for argument in his voice.

She agreed, easily, “I wouldn’t have expected anything else. How would you like me to get there? I could drive, I suppose, but then I’d need a full day off, which can be difficult for me.”

“How else would you propose to get there?” Merlin asked her and now Harry rolled his eyes.

“Merlin,” he said sharply and was reward with a scowl. “She can take the bullet train. It’s not like she doesn’t already know about it.”

Devina chuckled at the sour look on Merlin’s face. 

“Lighten up, Merlin. I know you think I am here for some nefarious purpose,” she grinned cheekily at him, “but you are allowing your desire to be a hard ass cloud your judgment.”

Harry repressed a chuckle at the imperious brow that Merlin quirked at her. 

“How so?” Merlin asked her coldly.

She turned to look at him, levity gone, serious but not intimidating as he had seen her before, “Everything that you think I could do, as well as several things that you haven’t thought of, yet, I could have done without you ever knowing of my existence.”

Harry and Merlin both sat back upon that statement. Harry wasn’t sure how to respond to such a claim, but Merlin seemed to have something to say.

“You really believe that, don’t you?” Merlin responded, his voice finally level and calm as he took in her demeanor. 

She just smiled, her voice reeking of sincerity and confidence when she said, “In time, you will as well.”

}*{

They continued to talk for awhile, making plans for Devina to come out to UKHQ in a few days to spar with Geraint before they made arrangements for Devina to train with Roxanne.

Harry and Merlin were both still quite wary about her; not really trusting her purpose, but wanting to. Merlin still thought she was a demon (he would never admit how the term “Seelie” floated about where he refused to grab it), but he was willing to see what she was made of. Harry, on the other hand, was more optimistic; if she was high up in MI6, they could possibly gain a useful connection they’d not had before.

Devina had been pretty on point with her expectations of how these two different men would react to her. Harry was still too much the field agent, addicted to adventure and adrenaline, while Merlin had been protecting the organization and it’s agents since Harry had been a recruit. She understood how he felt about her and her sudden presence at Kingsman. She wouldn’t be surprised if he never completely accepted that she meant them no harm. 

Regardless, she had a gift that she wanted to give him before she left for the day. 

Before she left Harry’s office, she turned to Merlin and said, “I have something for you.”

He looked at her in inquiry, and she nearly chuckled at the not quite concealed suspicion on his face. She carefully reached into her front pocket and pulled out a small USB stick and held it out to him.

“What is that?” he asked her, not taking it.

“It’s a program that I developed when I was at MIT,” she said, “you might find it useful.” She shrugged at him, “I have refined it since then, of course. It does need periodic updating, but it has a very solid base code.”

She did chuckle when he just continued to look at her skeptically. 

“It’s not a trap, but I do expect your due diligence on this one. You know how to run a program on a secured computer and sanitize code, yes?” She was once again openly grinning at him, “And check the device itself?”

He nodded at her and slowly reached out for the USB stick, “Will you tell me what the program is for?”

“No,” she said with humor. “You will figure it out, I’m sure. 

Once she had handed over the USB stick, she stood, “Cheers, Harry, Merlin,” she said before she walked around the chair and let herself out of the office.

She trotted down the stairs and around the counter, grinning at Andrew as she went. “Looking up, Andrew,” she winked at him, “no blood was shed.”

She let herself out of the shop to the sound of his laughter. And if Eggsy thought that she didn’t notice him lurking on her way out, well, that was his problem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is encouraged and very welcome.


	6. Interlude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eggsy's independent decision to find out more about Devina works, but far from how he intends.

Of course she knew when Eggsy fell in behind her as she left the shop. She had to hand it to him, he managed the subtle move quite well. She stopped and stepped out of the way of foot traffic to send a group text and Eggsy managed to not trip up while he waited for her to move on.

_Coming in hot. Nothing hostile, just curious. Don’t hurt anyone without my say so.-D_

She looked up and around for a moment before hiding a grin. She hadn’t been lying, she had only had a couple hours to kill when she’d gone to the shop. She stepped back into the flowing foot traffic, making her way back to the tube station. 

The problems with the biometric readers on their guns still waited for her and she did want to solve it. First, though, she had to get them onto that damn sniper rifle. It was a diverting problem. She didn’t forget about Eggsy following her, but thinking about the problem did allow him to think so.

He was good at tailing someone, she allowed. He didn’t ride the same train car that she did, but she did see him in the Vauxhall Station when he had to scramble a bit to keep her in sight. She held back her grin and managed to shake her automatic need to lose him. She really did hate being tailed, after all. 

When she trot up toward the doors, Alec was on his way out. He raised a brow in her direction, asking her if he could approach. She signaled the negative and identified her tail to him. She grinned at him as they passed, admonishing him silently that there should be no physical harm done to Eggsy. 

Alec flicked her an affirmative and after that, they were passed the point where they could communicate without giving it away. He and James had quickly learned the method of signs that she and Tristan used and it made their lives much easier when in company. _Oh, how I wish I could be privy to this,_ she thought with silent laughter. She wondered how Eggsy would react to being confronted by a grumpy, gorgeous Russian who would not be best pleased that she was being followed.

She turned minutely when she shouldered open the door and did break into a grin at what she saw. Alec was a far better tail then Eggsy was, for sure. He gave the appearance of being on the phone, patiently waiting for Eggsy to move on so that he could follow. 

Once she was through the door, she pushed it to the back of her mind and gave her usual cheery wave to the lobby security, which the younger returned with a wink, before she palmed the print reader at the turnstile and made her way down to the gun lab. 

}*{

She was in the long distance firing range testing the sniper rifle when Tristan finds her. She flicked a “hold” signal at him so she could take a shot before he spoke. She released her breath and squeezed down on the trigger. It was a bit stiff for what she liked, but it wasn’t to her specs, so it was fine. 

She grinned when she checked the shot. The scope was calibrated perfectly and her shot was dead center. The biometric reader was working well with the new placement. All the guns with print readers were programmed with hers and Q’s prints to make repairs easier and quicker. They didn’t have to deactivate and reprogram every time they needed to test a gun.

She racked the slide open and set the safety before she lowered the gun to the ground. She hopped to her feet and said, “It works.”

Tristan grinned at her, “Excellent. I like the idea of more of our guns being secure. Especially our custom jobs.”

“Yeah, we still have to work on the speed of recognition, though. It still takes longer than I would like it to on the hand guns.”

“Is that why you only carry your own guns?” he asked her, head cocked to the side.

She chuckled, “No, thought I would. I don’t get issued weapons, remember?”

He hummed before he spoke again, “So, we make that a priority. I don’t want our agents at risk. I am not happy that I didn’t think of it when the protocol was implemented.”

“Can’t blame yourself, Q,” she reached out and touched his shoulder in comfort. “You don’t use weapons the same way that some of us do. I _am_ surprised that none of the agents have mentioned it, though. We will figure it out.”

“Yes, we will.”

He waited for her while she took apart and put the rifle in it’s case for when 004 next needed it. She’d put a note in his file that it was to be tested by the agent on the range to make sure his own prints registered with how he handled the gun. They would make any needed adjustments as soon as possible.

When she was done and the gun was stored in the correct armory, they strolled back to q-branch and chatted about her current adventure.

“They are still hitting our firewalls, you know?” Tristan mentioned.

She grinned, “I didn’t expect them to give up quickly. They want to know that I am legit. I won’t even say ‘MI6’ to them, only Universal Exports. It’s hilarious to see them react to that.”

They retreat to his office and she told him about today’s interactions with the Kingsman. He was not happy about Merlin’s hostility, but he couldn’t blame the man. He was pretty sure that M wouldn’t have let someone who showed up in a similar fashion out of a holding cell for years. Devina looked at him seriously for a moment before she said anything.

“If you get into their surveillance, I only want to know about impending threats, yeah? If there are plans to attack me, that’s pretty much all I want to know. I need to navigate this in a genuine manner, alright?”

Tristan flashed her a quick grin. She knew him all to well. He was going to worry and would do whatever it took to protect her, and so would the others. She wouldn’t deny them, unless they interfered unnecessarily. That had been a hard lesson, all the way around. Thankfully, she’d been much younger when Tristan had needed the lesson and she had been much more gentle with him then than she was now.

Lord, the beating she’d given Alec still made him smirk. 

James had been the only one of them for whom the lesson had not been terribly painful, either emotionally of physically, but even he’d ended up unconscious and on the floor.

“Oh,” she laughed, “did I tell you that I sicked Alec on Eggsy?”

Tristan chuckled and shook his head, she’d already told him what she’d done to Eggsy at the shop, but he’d not heard this, yet.

“Yeah, he followed me when I left the shop. Alec was coming out when I arrived and he seemed to want to have some fun with it,” she said. 

“Oh, gods,” Tristan laughed, “I wish we could have seen that.”

She nodded her agreement. She had all faith that Alec could keep up with Eggsy. He and James had taken to training with her when they were home and now knew London the way that she did. From above and below.

}*{

Eggsy was not having a good time. There was a blond man with dark blue eyes tailing him. He couldn’t shake him and he was starting to panic. He’d even hit some alleys and rooftops trying to get rid of the man. He wasn’t sure who he was, but he had a suspicion that it had to do with Devina. He’d picked the man up not too far from the building she’d entered, after all.

Eggsy finally didn’t see the man behind him anymore and he breathed a sigh of relief, maybe he’d finally lost him. 

He hadn’t.

The next ally he went down, the man’s hands clamped down on him, one on his shoulder and one around his throat. The force was more than enough to bring him up short. His eyes widened as he got a close look at the heavily muscled man holding on to him. 

He was about an inch taller than Eggsy and had deep cobalt colored eyes that were cold as he looked Eggsy over. His expression was completely neutral. Eggsy could only be grateful that the man had caught his weight with the hand on his shoulder, rather than the hand on his throat. He was startled by how easily he’d been caught and it made him cautious about his chances of getting free.

“Why were you following my _lisichka_?” he was asked.

“Your what?” Eggsy asked.

The blue eyes rolled, “Devina. Why were you following her?”

Eggsy’s eyes widened fractionally as he took in that the woman he’d met today, _Devina Fredericks_ , had a pet name from this man. This man, who looked far more dangerous than she did, called her his “Little Fox.” 

What he said was, “I don’t know what you’re on about.”

The man assessed him again, taking in his suit and studying his face before his eyes flicked over his glasses. 

“I see,” the man said, still showing no emotion. “You absolutely know, but nothing I do will have you tell, will it, Kingsman?”

“Kingsman?” Eggsy repeated, infusing his voice with confusion, “what are you talking about? M’name’s Unwin.”

Alec suddenly grinned at the man, his face melting into warm lines of good humor. He kept the hand around Eggsy’s throat as he reached up with the hand from his shoulder and tapped the frame of the glasses quickly before dropping back to hold on to Eggsy’s shoulder again.

The man spoke again, his eyes looking at his glasses, rather than into Eggsy’s eyes, “I know exactly who you are, Gary Unwin. Galahad. Eggsy.” As he said the last name, he looked into Eggsy’s eyes for a moment before he switched back to the glasses.

“MI6 has been convinced to leave the Kingsman alone. We have even been ordered not to kill your agents when they show up in the vicinity of our missions. Don’t give us a reason to disobey those orders.” He paused for a moment, the smile on his face turned cold, “The orders that were drafted, proposed and fought for by the woman that you were following.”

The man let go of Eggsy, turned on his heel and walked away, back out of the ally and into the busy thoroughfare at the end.

Eggsy was staring after the man in confusion and jumped when he heard Merlin’s voice in his ear.

“Shite,” Merlin breathed softly, “I might owe her an apology.”

“What do you mean?” Eggsy muttered.

“Galahad,” Merlin said, “Return to HQ for debriefing.”

Eggsy was eternally grateful that there was no one there to see him lean against the side of a building for a moment to regain his bearings after he reached up to terminate his glasses feed.

}*{

Merlin was in his office on an offline laptop working on unraveling the information on the USB stick that Devina had given him. He’d already checked the housing for issues and made sure that the hardware inside was exactly what it was purported to be. It was as safe as he could prove it to be, physically. 

He had started to go through the code, line by line, deciphering the information and determining it purpose. It was shaping up to be something that could be very useful indeed. He could admit to himself that he was irritated that he’d not thought of a program like this, years ago. And according to her records, she’d coded it at sixteen or seventeen years of age. 

He wasn’t sure that he’d be able to code it _now_. But, he could interpret it. She’d left obvious gaps in the code for him, things that kept the program from running that he would have to correct in order to implement it.

He was interrupted by an alert from his main workstation. An agent had activated their glasses feed. An off mission agent. He rolled his chair over to the appropriate computer and pulled up the feed from Galahad’s glasses. He was suddenly looking right into cobalt blue eyes. The eyes seemed to be looking at him, rather than the person wearing the glasses and he immediately captured a picture and dropped it into a facial recognition program and started to listen to what was being said.

“…Galahad. Eggsy. MI6 has been convinced to leave the Kingsman alone. We have even been ordered not to kill your agents when they show up in the vicinity of our missions. Don’t give us a reason to disobey those orders.” The man paused and the look on his face turned cold as he continued, “The orders that were drafted, proposed and fought for by the woman that you were following.”

As he watched the man turn and walk away from Galahad, the facial recognition program beeped and let him know that a match had been found.

“Shite,” he muttered quietly. “I might owe her an apology.”

“What do you mean?” he heard Galahad ask.

“Galahad,” Merlin said, shaking his head at himself, “return to HQ for debriefing.”

He barely noticed that the feed turned off as he perused the information on 006 that was scrolling along his screen. He was one of the two most notorious double oh agents at MI6. Galahad might be lucky to have come out of that encounter unscathed. 006 was not known for adhering to rules or following orders to the letter. 

“Not to kill” was a far cry from “not to harm.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is welcome and encouraged.


	7. Changing Opinions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin's mind is almost made up and Devina arrives for her sparring session. First, she has to survive Eggsy.

Merlin decided that he should discuss Devina’s program and impending spar with Harry a bit more before she arrived this evening. He sighed as he thought about what he’d almost accused her of given the gifts that she had seemed to give them.

He’d sent out a request to all his active agents and gotten a confirmation. Bors and Lamorak had reported that they had NOT been shot when they turned up where they were unexpected with guns pointed at their heads, rather than center mass, where their suits would protect them. Gawain, however, had received quite a beating from 007 when he had, purposefully testing Merlin’s inquiry, come between the agent and a mark, resulting in a dislocated shoulder and several fractured ribs. 

Truly, the double ohs were not people to be trifled with. 007 would have been well within his own mission brief to kill Gawain without blinking or thinking twice about it. He’d not even spoken to Gawain, just incapacitated him and gone for his mark and successfully (he supposed) complete his own mission.

It had been going on for weeks now, possibly longer. Since shortly after V-day, anyway. Merlin could only imagine at the timing. Why now?

He shook off those thoughts in favor of the program that Devina had handed to him a few days before in Harry’s office. As he knocked and was given permission to enter, he smiled at Harry who greeted him gestured him into a seat. He glanced at the empty chair next to him before looking at Harry and making a confession.

“I owe her several apologies” he began. 

“Do you?” Harry asked him, “beginning with what?”

“She is definitely MI6, for one. If their 006 is to be believed, she has pushed through orders for us to be left alone,” Merlin just pointed to Harry’s drawer when he opened his mouth to speak and then used his own tablet to pull the footage of 006 speaking to Eggsy onto Harry’s tablet.

Harry’s brows climbed toward his hairline comically as he watched. When the brief feed ended, he looked at Merlin, “Why was Galahad following her?”

“It wasn’t official. He said that he had been curious and not really thought it through. 006 picked him up outside their Home Office and followed him for quite some time before confronting him,” Merlin chuckled, thinking about how Eggsy had not been able to let one thing go, “Galahad is still baffled that 006 referred to her as his ‘lisichka.’ Seems to be a sticking point with him.”

“006?” Harry questioned. “I can only imagine what it would take to get that man to give someone an affectionate nickname. Lord help us if she is more than professionally involved with him.”

Merlin chuckled, they both had spent time since meeting Devina pouring over all the information they had about MI6 operatives. The could likely recited the files by this point, not to mention their own experiences with them. Merlin was still irked that he couldn’t make any sort of headway into their firewall. Not surprised, however, given Devina’s programming capabilities.

“I have conferred with the agents. They report that MI6 has left them alone. Gawain’s injuries at the hands of 007 was a direct result of his usual enthusiasm in testing the theory,” Merlin reported dryly. “He isn’t dead, and we should count that as a resounding positive result, I think.”

Harry looked momentarily concerned before he laughed out right at Merlin’s statement, “Yes, I must agree. James Bond is not the type to brook any sort of interference. No permanent injury, you said?”

“No, but he will need to rehab his shoulder,” Merlin said after conferring with his notes.

Harry hummed in agreement before he asked, “What about the USB stick that she gave you? Have you made headway into figuring out what it is?”

Merlin sighed, “There is what my next apology should be for. A gift is what it is. And a beautiful piece of programming. If that is an example of her ability, she deserves whatever seniority she has.”

“Go on,” Harry told him, “what is it for?”

Merlin grinned, “The active program seeks out fingerprint databases and alters any prints that match what is stored in the code.”

Harry looked blank for a moment before a small grin crossed his features, “Does that mean what I think it means?”

“Yes,” Merlin said, voice firm. “If we load our agent’s fingerprints into the program and set it loose, it will comb the existing databases and alter any of the prints it finds that match. When she said that it needed to updated periodically, she meant with prints and new database information.”

Harry let loose a low whistle before commenting, “That’s a very powerful tool. I wonder what prompted her to have such faith in us.”

“So do I,” Merlin admitted.

}*{

Devina was in a pleasant mood when she took the steps up to the entry of Kingsman Tailors with a small rucksack in tow. She had been mired in her actual work for the past few days and it had gone quite well. 

One of R’s new trainees had suggested the the problem with the biometric readers on the guns was a hardware issue, rather than a software issue and they’d been working on it. The were making strides in creating a new material that would translate data more quickly.

D and Q had been needed to handle a couple of the double ohs on mission when they’d gotten stroppy with their regular handlers. No one was capable of dealing with agent’s in high temper the way that they were. It was mostly due to the great respect that each agent held for the directors of q-branch. They were young, but they had experience in spades and made very good use of it. When the missions they handled went wrong, it was usually due to an agent thinking they knew better. Usually. Sometimes, you did everything right and things still went tits up. 

Ah, well, no use dwelling on that now. She would have plenty of time to have more experiences with that, she knew.

She smiled and greeted Andrew as he turned to see who was arriving in the shop as he closed it down for the night.

“Hello, Andrew, miss me?” she winked at him.

He chuckled lightly at her, “Yes, Devina, it certainly is more exciting when you are here.”

“Is my escort about?” she asked him, walking forward to lean her back against the counter and dropped her bag to the floor as she watched him putter around.

“Oh,” he smiled at her, “I am sure they will arrive shortly. They’ve been waiting, rather impatiently.”

“They?” she asked with a grin.

Before she’d even finished speaking, there was a clatter of footsteps at the head of the stairs. She turned and watched Eggsy and Roxanne hurry down the stairs. She held in a small smile at their enthusiasm.

“Eggsy, Miss Morton,” she said warmly, now leaning forward against the counter. “How are you this evening?”

“Oh please,” Roxanne said as she halted on the other side of the counter, “call me Roxy.”

“Hey, Devi,” Eggsy said, grinning as he came to a halt next to Roxanne, “Who’s the big bloke that thinks you’re his ‘little fox’?”

Devina threw her head back and let loose a peal of genuine laughter leaving the two young spies and the seasoned agent staring at her. It was the first unrestrained thing they had seen her do. Andrew was almost shocked, while Eggsy and Roxy just thought that she was really, really pretty when she laughed like that. She couldn’t know that they both resolved to see and hear it again.

She was flushed and almost crying by the time she calmed a little bit. “Oh, gods,” she gasped, still chuckling, “I had heard you’d met Alec, but you couldn’t know that he asked me about you in an entirely similar manner.” 

And Alec had. He’d asked her, “Who’s the little guy who thinks you’re stupid?”

She was still chuckling as she looked at the two young people in front of her who needed to stop gaping at her. She turned to Andrew and told him good night and stooped to pick up her bag before she turned back to Eggsy and Roxy.

“Shall we get on with it? I believe I have something to show you all?” she asked as she slung her bag over her shoulder.

}*{

Eggsy was a little surprised that Merlin was waiting for them outside the bullet train when if finally stopped at HQ. The plan had been for them to escort Devina to the gymnasium, no Merlin mentioned. The ride had been fun, Devina telling him and Roxy stories about going to University in America and some of the things that she’d gotten up to with her best friend at the time. 

She had kept them laughing, which had kept Eggsy’s mind off of the large blond man that had confronted him and what the Kingsman files had to say about that same man. He wasn’t quite as foolish as Devina had implied that he was; he was quite aware that he’d come out of that meeting lucky.

He had also been reading up on the words that Andrew had written down for him. In the way of most searches on the internet, one thing had led to another and he’d been made aware of a whole world that had been existing right along side the one he’d previously been inhabiting. Gender, identity and orientation had taken on new meanings to him and the vast amount of knowledge he now held was whirling through his mind, trying to be applied, but he wasn’t sure how, yet. 

He was confident he would figure it out. It would percolate for a bit, then it would come out right.

But for now, he was looking forward to watching Devina fight with someone else. Someone that wasn’t him, to be exact. He was still embarrassed that she’d put him down so easily. From what he’d been able to gather from Merlin’s gushing about her program, she was a _techie_. What the fuck kind of technicians did MI6 have? He really wanted to know.

He shook it off and zeroed in on the conversation currently happening between Merlin and Devina as they walked to the room they’d designated for the “demonstration” of Devina’s skill with her blades. He still couldn’t spot any on her, and by the way Roxy kept nudging him, he was being fairly obvious about looking for them. Well, looking at her ass, anyway. 

“I was expecting to be x-rayed, pat down and for my bag to be gone through, Merlin, what’s up?” she teased the older man.

Merlin’s rolled his eyes at her, “After the things you’ve done for us, the least we can do is show a little trust. After all, what could you do in a building full of trained spies?” In the end, he was teasing her back.

There was a flash of something dark that went through Devina’s eyes before she smiled, “Do you really want to know?”

Merlin blinked, “No, I really don’t.”

Devina chuckled a bit, “And what do you mean things? I only gave you a base program for you to upgrade and use as you see fit.”

“Well,” Merlin drew the word out, “007 didn’t kill our agent when he came between him and a mark.”

“Did he know that he was doing so?” she asked, concerned.

“He did,” Merlin nodded as they walked through a set of swinging doors. “He was testing the theory that MI6 recognized us and was leaving us alone. Two of my other agents reported a great deal of surprise at not being shot on other occasions. Those were accidental encounters, though.”

She hummed quietly for a moment before commenting, “I gather that Alec said something about it. Don’t attribute that to me, it was a decisions that all the department heads had to agree on.”

Eggsy and Roxy exchanged a look. He wondered if she’d meant to give that away. 

“Yes, about that,” Merlin started and Devina just shook his head at him. 

“What ever it is, Merlin, we will talk about it later,” she said quietly, smiling at him before she turned to include the other two. She then turned to take in the space they had entered. 

Eggsy watched as she grinned at the assembled men and women who were gathered around the large, clear area that was used for sparring. After she had taken them all, and the space, in she promptly ignored them.

He was fascinated. She walked over to a blank space along the mirrored wall and sat to take her boots off. She then took off her socks and tucked them neatly into her boots and motioned Merlin over. The man went and she stood and spoke with him for a moment before she nodded and dropped her bag on top of her boots and followed Merlin over to the crowd of people.

Geraint stepped forward and Merlin introduced them. Eggsy winced and Roxy grabbed his arm as the agent in question refused to shake Devina’s hand. He heard her chuckle in the manner that was quickly becoming familiar to them as he heard her low voice clearly carry throughout the room.

“Oh,” she said, “this is going to be fun.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is welcome and encouraged.  
> C'mon, let me know how you like it ;)


	8. Prove It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Devina meets Geraint. The spar happens and Merlin can't stop what happens next. Roxanne has a slight case of hero worship and Eggsy, well, he's very very confused.

Devina swept her gaze over the room and the people in it. She saw a rather large gymnasium, well equipped with all kinds of training apparatus and a gathering of twenty or so people around a flat, open space obviously used for sparring.

She grinned at them before she promptly turned away, seemingly ignoring them. She could see the differences. Some were curious, some were angry, some were arrogant and over-confident. It was the over-confident that she had to watch out for. She knew that Merlin and Harry had not intended for this to be a spectator event, but she’d expected it. From what she’d been able to gather about Geraint, he was the type to want an audience for his victory.

She walked over to a clear space next to the mirrored wall and dropped her bag before she sat down to remove her shoes and socks. This was a spar, and while she was fantastic with shoes on, she’d always preferred bared feet on all surfaces. Once she’d neatly tucked her socks away, gestured Merlin over to her and she stood while he walked to her.

She was quiet when she spoke, “Merlin, I would like to ask that if you record this, it not remain on Kingsman servers.”

He looked surprised, “Why?”

“I just,” she looked mildly frustrated, “well, people get funny ideas. I even keep all this off MI6 servers. If you could get into them, you’d find no footage of me training.”

He blinked at her a couple times, trying not to give away that even as they spoke, his technicians were taking shots at getting through the MI6 firewalls. She grinned at him, knowing anyway.

“I am fine with Harry getting a live feed, but please, no recordings stored on the servers of Kingsman,” she said firmly.

He sighed and put a few commands into his ever present tablet before he looked up, silently asking if she was satisfied. She nodded and picked her bag up before dropping it directly on her boots. She wasn’t worried, there was nothing proprietary about her work boots or the contents of her rucksack.

Merlin let her over to the crowd and motioned to someone. A tall, lithe man stepped forward, dressed in one of the Kingsman’s bespoke suits. He was dark, all over. Olive skin, black hair, dark brown eyes set deeply under black brows. He was lean and sharp. 

“Geraint,” Merlin introduced them, “this is Devina Fredericks, who you will be sparring with, this evening. Devina, Geraint.”

Devina held out her hand for him to shake and he just looked at her, her clothing (her usual black tailored trousers and waistcoat) and her hand disdainfully. She chuckled lowly as she drew her hand back.

“Oh,” she commented wryly, “this is going to be fun.”

She turned to Merlin, “Have you got something for us to spar with, or are we doing this with our own blades?”

She heard a derisive sound that could have only come from Geraint, “I’m not worried, we can use blades.”

She looked back at him and considered him for a moment before cocking her head to the side and asking, “You don’t know me, or my skill set at all, why would you think you could win so easily?”

She was genuinely curious. It was one thing to believe in your own ability, but another to believe, genuinely, that you couldn’t be beaten. She, herself, alway reminded herself that _this fight_ could be the one that she lost.

He blinked at her for a moment, and it occurred to that no one had ever asked him that sort of question, before.

Finally, he stated bluntly, “Women don’t make proficient fighters.”

She smiled, “And can’t be taught, either, is that it?”

“That is correct,” he said, face set in a challenge.

“Well,” she said to him, “that’s all right then. You’re right, I’m not much of a fighter,” she grinned and looked at Merlin, “Let’s used blunted instruments for a couple rounds, then,” she looked back at Geraint, “if you still would like to use blades, we will.”

“Afraid?” he asked her smiling coldly.

She didn’t react in any way other than to calmly say, “No.”

}*{

Roxanne and Eggsy sidled up to Merlin once Devina and Geraint were equipped and out on the mat. Protocol was followed and the spar began.

Geraint was immediately disarmed with one of Devina’s prop knives at his throat. He growled out that it was pure luck. Devina just nodded in agreement and if she said anything in return they couldn’t hear it.

It goes on the same way for a solid five minutes. Geraint makes absolutely no headway and is immediately disarmed, every time, ending with Devina’s weapon against him somewhere vital.

“So,” Roxanne asked, staring at where Devina had beaten Geraint again, “if she’s not a fighter, what is she?”

Eggsy makes a noise in agreement, as he wonders the same thing.

Merlin barely flicked a glance at them before he looks back at the spectacle. Geraint was nearly frothing at the mouth. Devina had suggested that he try something different.

“She’s a killer,” he responded absently, brow furrowed as he tried to figure out Devina’s plan. 

Eggsy sucked in a surprised breath so quickly that he started to choke and Roxanne put her own shock on hold to pat him on the back before she almost shoved him over in her haste to get out on the mat when she saw what happened next.

She was thankful, later, that Eggsy had grabbed her and held her back. 

}*{

Devina was deliberately provoking the man. Everyone had to know it. Geraint certainly did. He was getting more and more frustrated as he never remained armed for more than a few seconds before she had knocked his weapons out of his hands and made a kill shot.

She ruthlessly pushed down her need to beat this man into a bloody pulp. He was the kind of asshole that she hated to deal with and mostly didn’t have to. She was eternally grateful the agents of MI6 had much more flexible minds than the older Kingsman seemed to. It seemed as though Chester King’s influence was still being felt. She was almost surprised the he’d even allowed Roxanne to be a proposal. Probably thought she’d fail out, then was just happy to take her over Eggsy. 

She shook off the thoughts before she gave into her temper. She was trying to wait until Geraint’s temper and pride broke so that she could take it out on him. 

The next time she disarmed him, she knew she had him. She suggested mildly, “Maybe you should try something different.”

He snarled at her silently as he picked up his props and toed the line one more time. She kept her grin to herself, but didn’t know that her eyes were glowing with her intention as much as his were.

This time when she disarmed him and brought her prop up to press against his heart, he came at her unarmed. She saw the hit coming and dropped her own props and drove herself forward off her front leg, pushing herself inside the strength of the blow and pushing him off balance. While he was still reeling, she kicked him square in the chest, pulling it a bit so that she didn’t break his sternum. She grinned at the idea that he’d have her foot print on him for days, though.

She gave him the credit that he was due when he rolled to his feet and drew his knives. Her grin turned feral as took a half step back and knelt to pick up her props. They would be good enough for her purpose.

“Not going to draw?” he asked her tightly.

“Don’t need to,” she grinned and started to move. She was aces at distractions, after all, and she was far removed from anything that he was used to. 

She’d done a lot of fire spinning at university. Poi, rope dart, staff, contact juggling, hell, she’d even played with fire hoops. It was next to useless in combat, but it was pretty and a great excuse for playing with fire. Between poi and contact juggling, she was able to spin the fake knives around in a great array of shapes and keep Geraint’s eyes busy, trying to track both ‘knives’ as they moved in diametrically opposed patterns.

Every once in a while, she firmed up her grip and tapped one of his knives as he tried to weave them around himself to guard. She kept it up, finally making use of the space provided by the mats and moving them both around the floor. She let him try to attack a few times and always countered by hitting the flats of his blades away from her, not trying to meet the edges. 

She began to lose patience with her own game. The next time he over reached, she swept his arms to the side and broke one of his ribs with her prop. He grunted and kept going as she knew that he would. The next time, she stabbed him just over the inguinal ligament on his right side, which might, possibly, result in a hernia. The time after that, she followed her one armed sweep with her other arm, brought the prop down sharply and broke his left wrist. He immediately dropped that knife.

After that, she ended the game quickly. The next lunge was sloppy and she let it go by, stabbing her own ‘knife’ straight back into the back of his thigh with a force that she knew would leave a tear in the muscle. When his leg gave out, he was dropped to one knee and breathing heavily.

Before he was able to do, anything really, she turned and brought her hilt down on the back of his head. She did restrain herself and didn’t give him a concussion, but knocked him into a daze.

When he went down, she kicked his knife out of the way before she scanned the room. There were two people that she didn’t recognize headed her way at a fast clip. Her face settled into a mask of stone. She said nothing, but everyone heard her own blades clear their sheaths after she dropped the fake knives and went on the defensive.

No one knew what made her smile. 

Deep in her left ear canal, so deep that an instrument was needed to remove it was a fitted ear piece that she always wore outside of Tristan’s company. An amazing piece of technology, it allowed all sound through and allowed him to communicate with her. Paired, as it was, with the piece of jewelry in her mouth, she could communicate with him, as well.

Tristan’s voice sparked to life in her ear, “Don’t kill the idiots, but feel free to teach them better than to fuck with you.”

It was safe to say that everyone was confused and more than a little worried when she chuckled and sheathed her knives before moving forward to meet the unfortunate idiots who were coming at her.

}*{

Harry managed to keep his composure when he entered the room where what was supposed to be a simple spar had taken place. When he entered, Devina was dispatching the second of the two agents that had rushed to aid Geraint. She was graceful, even when putting the edge of her hand to good use. 

He looked around the room, almost smiling at Eggsy’s gobsmacked look and the absolute awe on Roxanne’s face, and spotted Merlin. Merlin wasn’t faring much better. His face held that blankness that was his very surprised look. He saw Merlin blink and then look his way. He winked at Harry and was obviously not entirely displeased, but also satisfied by the outcome of the event.

Devina drew his attention again when she called out to the group that had been watching the spectacle. 

“Anyone else wan’a go?” she asked, running her words together much as Eggsy did when his emotions were high.

Harry stepped forward, “I would.”

She turned to him, not showing her surprise at his unexpected voice. He didn’t hear the voice in her ear that said, “You can’t beat him up, Devi.” He only heard her hum in consideration before she answered.

“Yeah, alright,” she said lightly, “a proper demonstration, then? Not an unexpected fight?”

He nodded and asked, “Do you know Tai Chi?”

She barked out a laugh at the unexpected question, “Yeah, Shihan thought I needed to relax a bit.”

Harry chuckled as he motioned Merlin to get the medics in to take care of the men laid out on the mat before he knelt to remove his shoes. He then stood and slid his jacket off and holding it out. Roxanne nudged Eggsy out of his stupor and he came over to retrieve it, asking under he breath, “Know what you’re doing, bruv?” 

Harry just nodded and shrugged out of his shoulder holster and removed his ring before handing it all over to Eggsy for safe keeping. He looked back at Devina and she rolled her eyes before she unbuttoned her waistcoat and slid it off, revealing her set-up was worn over a vest, today. She padded over to where her things were and folded it on top of her bag before removing the sheath on her back and popping it up against the pile. She then hiked up the leg of her pants and removed that sheath as we and added it to the pile.

When she looked up, Harry was still looking at her and he quirked a brow at her. This time she sighed and hiked up her other pant leg and removed her back up knife before she pulled a small push dagger out of the back of her waist before tossing them on the pile. She stood and looked at him with her own brow up and he grinned at her and nodded. 

By the time they met in the middle of the floor mats, the Kingsman medical team had removed the downed agents.

She asked, “Push hands?”

“To start,” he agreed. He was honored when she closed her eyes and took a grounding breath before opening them and getting into the ready position.

When they were standing together, wrist touching, Harry caught his breath at the genuine, open smile that she gave him.

“Thanks, Harry,” she said.

He nodded at her, watched her eyes close again and he began their dance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is welcome and encouraged.


	9. Saving Face

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry gets a whisper of family feels for the charming ninja that invaded his agency and it terrifies Merlin. Devina and Tristan have a talk.

It was over an hour later when Harry and Devina finally bowed to each other on the mat. They were both relaxed and smiling. Harry was a bit short of breath and both of their shirts were soaked in sweat. 

Harry was almost too shocked to react when Devina stepped up and looked at him in question as she reached out to him. He grinned and held his arms open and she stepped in and hugged him. It was fierce and emotional. Truly, it was something he’d never even thought to have from her.

It warmed something in him that he hadn’t realized was cold. 

He pulled back from her, holding onto her shoulders, “That was wonderful, Devina, we should do it again, soon.”

She gave him an open, unguarded smile and she looked years younger. He suddenly wondered what kind of affection she’d received in her life before he shook it off. If he was fortunate, she might tell him someday.

“Thank you, Harry,” she said, reaching up to grip his elbows. “I haven’t done anything like that in years. Definitely soon.”

He let go of her and gestured for her to precede him off the mats and they both walked toward Merlin. 

“Merlin,” he asked, “what’s the prognosis on Geraint, Gareth and Bedivere?”

Merlin consulted his tablet before he looked warily at Devina and she smirked at him. Harry just cleared his throat to bring Merlin’s attention back to him.

“Gareth and Bedivere will be fine, once they wake up. They have no actual injuries, just some bruises. Geraint, on the other hand,” he scrolled for a moment, “has a torn hamstring, an inguinal hernia, a broken rib, a broken wrist, and a foot print on his chest, but no concussion. He will need at least six to eight weeks of recovery time.”

Harry grinned and made sure that his voice carried, “That’s less time that what he’d have dealt with from me.”

Everyone in the room froze. Everyone had stayed to watch Harry and Devina’s exhibition. It had been done so skillfully that you couldn’t really call it anything else. At his words, a couple people paled, remembering that Harry was still the most dangerous of them all.

He turned and swept his gaze over the assembled personnel, “No true gentle-person would behave in such a way during a spar. No savvy spy would be such a derisive asshole to someone he didn’t know deserved it, either. You are all dismissed.”

There was a brief scramble as they all tried to leave the room at once, Eggsy and Roxy trailing behind them. 

“You two may stay,” Harry called after them before he turned to Devina, who had wandered over to her pile of things. 

He watched as she dug through her bag and pull out a clean vest and before he could consider it he asked her, “Devina, would you like a shower? We have locker rooms.”

She looked up at him and grinned before she stuffed her vest and waistcoat into her bag. She stood up collecting her other thing and shoving the push dagger back into her pants before she answered.

“Yes, please.”

He looked significantly at Roxy and Eggsy and they both walked toward Devina and Roxy said, “We’ll show you the way, if you’d like?”

Devina nodded in agreement and started to walk after them before she stopped and stepped up to Merlin and Harry.

“Thank you, both,” she said, smiling gently, “I’ve really enjoyed this, so far.” 

And with that, the three of them were out the door.

Harry looked after them for a moment before he turned to Merlin and they fell into step, heading toward Merlin’s domain. 

“What do you think her life was like? She said she’d become, well _that_ , when she was sixteen. Became that, not began training for that,” Harry asked Merlin while they were walking.

“What is this about, Harry?” Merlin asked, cautious.

“Erm,” Harry trailed off, “I was just wondering.”

Merlin looked at him like he was insane, “No, Harry.”

“What?” Harry asked, all innocence.

“You can’t have a pet ninja,” Merlin told him firmly.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Harry scoffed before he looked at Merlin amused, “As if she’d be anyone’s _pet_.”

Merlin’s eyes narrowed at him but he didn’t respond.

}*{

Devina could hear Eggsy and Roxy chatting in the locker room while she showered. The provided toiletries were lush and she found some that were unscented to wash with. She sighed as the warm water ran over her well used muscles. 

She hadn’t done Tai Chi in a long time. Not with a partner, anyway. People who weren’t serious about it could never understand the deep connection that could form between two people practicing together. She was actually surprised at the connection she felt begin to form with Harry Hart. 

She had closed her eyes to him.

“Fuck,” she muttered.

Tristan sparked to life in her ear, “Indeed. One of those things that you never knew you wanted.”

“Yeah,” she said quietly, so that her voice didn’t travel to the other two in the room.

“No. Can you handle this?”

She grinned, knowing that he would hear it in her voice, “With my usual aplomb. But not tonight. Tonight, I want to cuddle and fall asleep with my best friend, yeah?”

“That works for me, love,” he said, “Come home soon.”

“Roger that, darling,” she finished rinsing herself and shut the shower off. 

She heard the conversation in the other room come to an abrupt halt and she smiled again. She found a rather fluffy, absorbent towel outside the shower and started to dry herself off. After running the towel over her hair, she wrapped it around herself, grabbed her discarded clothing and headed to where she’d secured her gear and bag.

Eggsy and Roxy were sitting on the bench that ran in between the rows of lockers. They both looked at her as she made her way to the end where her gear was and neither said anything. She just shrugged mentally and treated it like the locker room that it was. 

So, she didn’t say anything when she dropped her towel to get dressed and there was one sharply indrawn breath and on gusty sight let loose. She just went about pulling on clothing and weapons. When she sat to put her boots on she glanced up at them.

“What?” she asked mildly. They were both avidly staring at her and, if she allowed it, it would make her uncomfortable. She wasn’t exactly in the habit of putting herself on display as much as she had, today. So, she did what she always did, turned the tables.

Predictably, Roxy blushed, but Eggsy just grinned at her, “Some amazing ink you’ve got, there.”

She hummed in agreement, “Would have loved more, but has to be covered, yeah?”

“Were you a gymnast?” he asked.

“Barely,” she smiled at him, “it was only to supplement other activities. I only competed at a very low level. Taught me to control my body, which was the point, anyway.”

“Did you like it?” he asked her, curious. 

“I did.”

She looked to Roxy, “What kind of things did you do?”

She stammered a moment, flushing again and Devina tried not to laugh at her while she calmed herself, “Uhm, I learned horse riding, did some hunting, martial arts.”

“Good combination,” Devina said, smiling. 

By this time,she had her boots laced up and her weapons strapped on. She stood, shouldering her bag full of dirty clothes and looked at the two agents in front of her. She was enjoying spending time with new people that she _didn’t_ work with, but it was time to go home.

“You two wanna show me the way out of here?” she asked, even though she could have found her way on her own. Merlin had demanded that she be escorted and she wasn’t going to push his buttons just yet. 

}*{

Tristan was waiting for her when she got home. James was still out on a mission and Alec had retreat upstairs to give them some privacy. Tristan was in the kitchen, making them some tea, preparing for the unique and unusually introspective Devina.

She didn’t often think too hard about how she’d gotten to where she was in life, there was no point to it; she believed that life moved forward, not backward. He knew, though, that whatever had happened with Harry Hart this evening would have triggered some heavy thinking in her. 

“Hey, love,” she said, coming up behind him and wrapping her arms around him.

“Hey, yourself,” he replied as he turned his head to give her a kiss in greeting. She kept contact with him but didn’t interfere with what he was doing. 

When he was done, she let go of him and picked up one of the teacups before retreating to the living room with him following. It hadn’t changed, still filled with over sized, incredibly comfortable furniture. He settled on the end of the couch that she wasn’t sprawled out on and settled with his legs curled up, facing her and waited for her to speak.

“I miss him,” she said as she sat up to take off her boots.

“Of course you do. He was the biggest part of your life for seventeen years,” Tristan replied.

“Not much of a father figure, though,” she said with a smile as she settled back into the couch with her tea.

Tristan barked out a laugh, “No, definitely not that. He did care for you, a great deal, though.”

She nodded and thought for a moment before speaking again, “I think that I never would have known if he wanted to be. One of the things he hated the most about his own upbringing was that the idea of family was subverted and perverted so badly.”

Tristan considered it for a minute before he said, “I could understand that.”

“Did you know that he hugged me before he left?” she asked.

Tristan perked up, “He did?”

“Yeah, told me that he didn’t have anything else to teach me, we hugged, I clung to him, really, and then ‘poof,’ he was gone,” she told him before she set her tea aside and curled up, wrapping her arms around her knees.

Tristan scooted forward so that he could rest his hands over hers and started to stroke her hands and fingers.

“Would you change it if you could?” he asked.

“I don’t think so. I mean, I am pretty fucking happy with where I am and who knows what would be different?” was her response and she moved her hands to lace her fingers with his.

“So, what happened with Harry?” Tristan asked her quietly.

She hummed and a small smile broke over her face, “I don’t know. But, I was incredibly comfortable with him. Like, well, like grandmother, I guess.”

“What do you mean?” Tristan asked. He’d not see much of the relationship between Devina and Olivia, but he knew they had cared for each other more than anything else. 

It was from that which everything else had sprung, honestly.

She wrinkled her nose and tried to explain, “It’s strange, really. He feels like an authority figure who I want to be proud of me. Seriously, who can ever reign me in like that? I was about to lose my temper.”

“Well,” Tristan said, “I can, but I know that’s not the same. I just know you. I could have kept you from killing people, but I couldn’t have had you relaxed and smiling at the end of it.

“Did you mean what you said about Tai Chi?” he asked, smiling at her slyly.

She chuckled, “Yeah, I did. I was too jumpy when I was very young. Shihan thought that Tai Chi would help. It did. He used to do it with me like I did with Harry, but the connection was different.”

“How was it different?”

“Shihan, well, he was my teacher. He was always pushing me further, developing a skill, giving me a tool, you know?” she said.

He nodded and squeezed her hands.

“Harry, he wanted security. He wanted me to feel secure, for himself to feel that way, and for everyone to see that we could work together, almost perfectly. It was comforting,” she looked almost bashful, he thought.

“Well, love, what are you going to do?” 

“Just, spend time with him, I guess,” she smiled, “I like being in his company. Might be nice to have some family that aren’t my lovers, yeah?” 

She winked at him and he laughed. 

“I have a feeling the two of you are going to drive Merlin insane. Better him then me. You, James and Alec are plenty for me to handle,” he said as he slithered behind her and they wriggled around until they were spooned on the couch.

He picked up the remote and they snuggled in to watch a movie.

Alec just smiled fondly and went to make them all coffee when he found them there in the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is welcome and encouraged.


	10. Absent Fondness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everybody wants to know about Devina and she's off gallivanting with 007.   
> Only not really, there is work to be done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a filler chapter.  
> Yes, I totally screwed with the Olivia Mansfield timeline, because, yeah...

Harry sat back from his desk where, in his spare time, he’d been pouring over the scarce information they had on Devina. He had either missed it the first time, or it had been added later, but they finally had a next of kin on her. Who she’d gone to when her parents had died.

He tapped his glasses, “Merlin.”

“Yes, Harry,” was the immediate reply.

“Give me what we’ve got on Olivia Mansfield,” he requested. “Anything you can find.”

“Harry,” Merlin hesitated, “do you know who that was?”

“Should I?” Harry asked him.

“Yes, you bloody well should,” Merlin growled, “she used to be ‘M.’”

“MI6’s M? You’re joking,” Harry said with surprise, “because she the kin that took in Devina Fredericks when her parents died.”

“Where did you get the information? I don’t have that information,” Merlin sounded offended that Harry knew something he didn’t.

“It’s in the information that we have on her. I must have overlooked it last time I reviewed the information,” Harry explained.

“You didn’t overlook it, it wasn’t bloody fucking there!” Merlin was almost shouting.

Harry just laughed, he had guessed that Devina had added the information, wanting to give them something to look for. He knew that there was much that she would be able to tell them, after all, but she might point them in the correct direction.

Now, Merlin was cursing before he interrupted himself, “Shite, now that I am looking at Mansfield, I have a lot more information. Harry, you need to see this.”

“Should I come down?” he asked, concerned.

“Aye, you should,” Merlin told him, “there is more than I would have thought.”

Harry sighed and removed his glasses and put them in his breast pocket before he levered himself up from his desk and made his way to Merlin’s lair.

When he stepped into the control center, Merlin was off to the side at his personal desk while some of the other handlers were at the main station, working with agents in the field, relaying information and guiding them through unfamiliar streets.

He felt a great deal of satisfaction that they were still running strong, even after the actions of Chester King and Valentine. There efforts to “save” the world had instead left it reeling. He paused for a moment to observed before he joined Merlin only to stop and take a step back as something on one of the monitors caught his eye.

He stepped up to the control center and commanded that handler, “Tell you agent to pan back right ninety degrees.”

“Yes, sir,” she said and relayed the order from Arthur.

As the agent panned back, it landed on Devina and 007, seated at an outdoor cafe. He was leaning toward her, speaking close to her ear and she was laughing.

“Get a still of that,” Harry said.

“Yes, Arthur,” the handler said, “what would you like me to do with it.”

“Send it to my tablet, then erase it from the server.”

There was a pause before she said, “Done, sir.”

“Where is that, anyway?” Harry asked, curious.

“Rome,” was the answer.

He stepped over to Merlin’s desk where he was met with a questioning stare. 

“I just saw Devina and James Bond in Rome, together,” Harry remarked, calmly.

Merlin smiled at him, “It stands to reason that she knows him, they work for the same agency, after all.”

Harry hummed, “It was a good deal more intimate than them just knowing one another.”

Merlin let out an exasperated huff, “Arthur,” he reminded him, “they work for MI6, it’s probably a cover.”

Harry shook off his concern. James Bond was a dangerous man, yes, but she was a dangerous woman. 

“Point taken,” Harry murmured, “what is this information that you wanted me to see?”

}*{

Eggsy was at home, the flat that he’d gotten on his own, not Kingsman issued, thank you very much, poking around the Kingsman servers. He was looking for the files they had to have on Devina. He was curious enough to look, and he was a damn spy. He didn’t think that she would blame him, not really.

In fact, he was very sure that she had raided the same servers quite thoroughly. She seemed to know, not only who everyone was, but what they did. She also didn’t seem to need much leading around Kingsman properties. He had a feeling that she had come to them to see if they were the same as the files she had on them. 

He got up to get a drink and maybe a snack while he thought about the day she’d come to spar with Geraint. She had been amazing. He’d seen fire performers around London and so he recognized what she’d been doing when she spun her props knives around. He also knew that it was useless for fighting, but had learned that it could be a magnificent distraction. Geraint certainly hadn’t known what to make of it. That she’d put him out of commission with prop blades was fantastic. Geraint was an asshole who deserved more of a beating. It was a spar that he’d turned into a fight.

He was happy that he’d pulled Roxy back when he had. When those idiots had gone after her, he’d been shocked that she’d sheathed her knives before she beat them soundly. He thought for sure someone was going to die. He supposed that she had a great deal of self control, but she’d been itching for a brawl until Harry’d come in.

He couldn’t help but smile when he thought of what had happened after. He had a though and went back for his phone. He pulled up Google and entered “shihan” in the search engine and set it down before he went to the kitchen for some water and pulled out things to make a sandwich.

Harry and Devina had moved together beautifully. He would have to research Tai Chi a bit to see if he could understand exactly what had happened in that room. They had started out with such small movements, never breaking contact with one another, and gradually built into large, sweeping motions where they threw each other around, gracefully of all things, rolling to their feet easily and coming back together.

He had almost felt awkward, being in the room with them afterward. There seemed to be a rapidly growing affection between the two of them. Devina had almost completely dropped her guard. That same guard had immediately gone back up when she was alone with him and Roxy, though. He and Roxy had chat about it a bit while Devina had showered. Later, he realized that’d she likely known they were talking about her, given how abruptly they’d stopped when the shower turned off.

He stopped what he was doing and groaned as his memory progressed. She’d gotten naked. Clearly, she worked hard on her body, and not for aesthetics. She was powerfully built, all muscle with spectacularly natural curves. She’d honed down what she could, but still had a beautiful flare to her hips and breasts that were perfect for her size. He couldn’t ignore that she was thickly muscled through her arms, shoulders and thighs, like any gymnast, with a well defined core.

Simply gorgeous. He’d had gasped, shocked when she’d unceremoniously dropped her towel. Not nearly so much by the action, it was a locker room, after all, but at the sight. He’d vaguely heard Roxy’s gusty sigh next to him, and he’d managed to reign himself in by the time she bothered to pay attention to them again.   
They had chat for a moment before she’d asked them to escort her out. The trip back to the shop had passed in a comfortable silence. 

When he finished his snack, he picked his phone up to look at the search results on his way back to his computer. He coughed a little bit on the water as he took in the significance of her calling someone “Shihan.” 

Damn, she was just full of surprises. 

He settle back into his desk chair and started looking through the various servers and files, again. He finally hit pay dirt when he found the current file on her. There were a couple of sub-folders that were being currently updated so he backed off, resolving to come back at them later. 

He was really interested in the one labeled “Sukoshi Yami.” Especially when he entered the words into a translator and it came back “Little Darkness.” 

He got up and decided to go see his mum and Daisy. He’d come look through the files later, when they weren’t being used. 

}*{

Many miles away, far from England and even far from Rome where she’d last been seen, Devina was looking through a pair of binoculars at her mark as he strolled out of the market in Tunis. 

Her ear sparked to life and Tristan asked her, “How close are you?”

“Close enough, another day, maybe two,” she told him.

“They found your family connection, by the way,” he told her, amused, “when did you add it to your information?”

She hummed, “Before I left. I figured it would give them something to do. I assume by now Eggsy has cracked Harry’s security and is looking at what they have on me, including the Sukoshi Yami file.”

He laughed, “You’d be correct. I notice you didn’t mention Miss Morton.”

She smiled, “Miss Morton is as by the books as possible is it to be as a spy. She’d not be able to justify the invasion of privacy when I am not a job.”

“And Eggsy?” he asked her.

“He’s more like us, Tris, of course he is trying to find all the information he can in any way he can. It’s not as though we don’t do the same.”

“Well, for work we do.”

“Now who’s full of shit?” she asked him, grinning.

He chuckled a bit before he moved to offense, “Speaking of full of shit, do you have something you want to tell me about Eggsy?”

“Not as yet,” she said, firmly. 

“Alright, love,” he said, “you know I support it, though?”

“Of course you do,” she said with cheek, “If you didn’t, you would have talked me out of going in the first place.”

She could practically hear him roll his eyes, “Sometimes I despair over how well we know one another.”

“Nah, you don’t,” she said, “you love it.”

“That I do.”

She watched her mark as he made to leave the area and put down her binoculars, “Time for me to move, Tris, I’ll talk to you soon.”

}*{

Merlin was brooding. What’s worse is that he knew it. 

He wanted to like Devina Fredericks. She is intelligent and well spoken. She has personality in spades, made Harry smile and had put every single agent they had on their toes. She seemed willing to take their Lancelot under her wing, but hadn’t overstepped. She’d could probably put and and keep Eggsy in his place if she actually wanted to, though he had a feeling that she didn’t.

Yes, he definitely wanted to like her, he was even sure that he did. The problem was, she knew more than he did. He wasn’t used to that, at all. He was generally the person who doled out information piece by needed piece. 

He spared a moments thought that maybe, just maybe, that was the point. 

He shook it off and instead thought about how he could resolve the issue. Maybe he could talk to her. She would understand his viewpoint, he was sure. She would even understand that whatever she told him or allowed him to find, Harry would also know.

She didn’t seem like she was worried about what they might find out about her, more that she had made a lifetime habit of discretion. And he did mean a lifetime. The details about her parents’ deaths were sketchy. And there was just very little information on her, after that. Just the basics, and he knew just enough about her to know the info had either been sanitized, or never existed.

They’d begun to gather information about her grandmother, and the information was daunting. She’d been a rather formidable woman, as they had learned from the records of her career prior to her move to MI6. She’d held the title of M for a long time with no problems until weeks before her death. 

Of course the details of her death were heavily redacted. 

They found the records of Olivia’s guardianship over Devina and the changes that were made to the filed paperwork when Devina had gone to university abroad as a minor. The name Taro Yamada had been added. Obviously no one’s real name, it was the Japanese equivalent to “John Smith.”

He wondered if that was the “Shihan” that she’d mentioned. It would explain how she could have become Sukoshi Yami at sixteen. The information could be made to line up; the name had come out of New England, after all, right about the same time.

He sighed heavily. He had no answers, but he wanted them.

He resolved to ask her his questions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is welcome and encouraged.


	11. R & D Shenanigans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Devina and Merlin spend some quality time together.

“Hello, Andrew,” Devina said when he answered the phone at the shop, “this is Devina.”

“Devina, how are you?”

“I am well, Andrew. Would you mind connecting me to Merlin? I don’t have a number for him,” she asked.

“Is it an emergency?” Andrew asked.

“No, not at all. If he’d busy, he is welcome to call me back,” she told him, smiling.

“Very good, hold on a moment and I will see if he is available.”

“Thanks, Andrew.”

No more than a minute later, Merlin’s voice came over the line.

“Devina, to what do I owe the pleasure?” he asked.

“Hi, Merlin,” she said cheerfully, “I was wondering if you could help me out with something.”

“Oh?” His response was careful.

“Yes,” she kept the smile in her voice while she rolled her eyes. “You have a tech lab?”

“You are a better pro-,” he started and she cut him off.

“Nah, not a computer lab. A weapons lab. I have something I think you could help me out with,” she told him.

“You want my help? There isn’t anyone at MI6 who can help you?” she could practically hear him frantically trying to put together her motivation for calling him.

“It’s a personal project, I tend to keep those out of Universal Exports,” she informed him. “And my partner is busy.”

“Your partner?” he questioned.

“Yeah, can I come?” she asked, “I’ll tell you about Tristan when I get there.”

She imagined him slumping over a desk and rubbing at his forehead when he answered, “Aye, you can. Have Andrew activate the elevator for you.”

“Thanks, Merlin!” she said cheerily, “I’ll see you soon.”

She couldn’t wait, this was going to be fun. She slung her laptop bag over her shoulder and went out the door.

}*{

Andrew had been happy enough to see her when she arrived at the shop. They had chat for a few minutes about mundane things that had gone on in the two weeks that she’d been absent. He wanted to retake her measurements, just to make sure Roxanne had been accurate. They made an appointment for her to come in for that and to look over some of the designs they had drawn up for her.

“So,” she asked him, “anything interesting happening that you can tell me about?” 

“Oh, so many interesting things,” he said and winked at her, “but none that I can tell you about.”

She chuckled, “Of course,” she bowed and gestured toward fitting room one, “show me the way, oh great guardian of the castle.”

He laughed as he quickly locked the door to the shop and led her into the fitting room. They stepped in and she closed the door behind them. He reached out to the glass and placed his hand. Once the reading registered, the elevator began to descend.

“Do you guys have an issue with biometric readers taking too long to register?” she asked him.

He shrugged, “I haven’t known any to read particularly quickly, why?”

She was frowning, looking at the floor, “Shit,” she said quietly, “it’s too fucking simple, can’t be that easy. Can it?” she looked up grinning.

She paced around the space they were in and Andrew just started at her and kept calm. She glanced at him and pulled her phone out, tapping the screen for a minute and shoving it back in her pocket. 

“Oh, I can’t wait to work on that,” she was practically bouncing in place.

“Are you alright?” Andrew ventured to ask her.

“Yes,” she said as she visibly tried to calm herself, “I just might have found the break we needed to fix a problem we’ve been having in the lab. Sorry, can’t say more.”

He just nodded and smiled pleasantly. He was used to the eccentricities of covert agents. He didn’t doubt that’s what she was, no matter that she didn’t talk about it. They settled into silence until the elevator halted and the doors slid open.

“Cheers, Andrew, see you in a couple days,” she waved behind her as she exited.

“Yes, Devina, I look forward to it,” was his reply as the doors slid closed again.

Devina’s thoughts were racing as she trotted over to the bullet train. R’s new hire had been on the right track (she couldn’t remember his name just now), and now she had something else to go on. What they needed already existed, they just had to refine it and make it work for their purposes. Excellent. 

She spent the ride texting Tristan her thoughts on the matter and they descended into technobabble over the fingerprint readers on smart phones. They were fast, but entirely unreliable. They’d have to improve it, make it infallible. The software and hardware would have to be dissected and redone, but at least they had something to go on.

She slipped her phone back into her pocket as the train stopped and the door slid open.

She grinned, Merlin was waiting for her just outside the door.

}*{

Merlin looked at her where she burst out of the train with suspicion. She was grinning, practically vibrating with eagerness. In his experience, exuberant spies were a bad thing. And while it was true that she professed that she wasn’t a spy, she was something involved in covert operations, so he couldn’t exclude her from his wariness.

He thought briefly about sending her to spar with someone before he shook it off. That could be potentially more troublesome than whatever would happen otherwise.

“Merlin!” she practically shouted his name and he cocked his head.

“Devina, welcome back,” he said and kept his voice deliberately calm.

“Merlin,” she stepped up to him and stopped just out of reach, “do you know anything about micro-dermal sensors?” she spoke quickly, “Wait, wait, shit, no, that’s not what I came here for. Shit, sorry.”

He looked on with growing amusement, “Well, what did you come here for?” He was starting to understand her excitement. She’d figured something out, something to do with her tech and she was excited.

“Oh,” she said and started to deflate before she caught herself and smiled again, “I broke something, I was hoping you could help me fix it. Maybe come up with a better way to construct it.”

“Well, then, let’s get to it, shall we?” he said and tilted his head in a “follow me” gesture as he started toward the appropriate lab.

He smiled as she fell into step next to him. He held in a chuckle when he realized that she’d, of course, taken the second position. She was just behind his left shoulder, leaving him room to move with his dominant arm and offering support to his weaker side.

“Devin,” he had to ask, “why have you fallen into guard position with me?”

She grinned at him, “You can handle yourself, Merlin, but I am a guest here. It’s a position I am content to be in.”

He finally gave in to the chuckle and asked, “And would you? Protect me?”

“Yup,” she drawled out and popped the p at the end.

“Huh,” was his brilliant reply. 

He couldn’t think of anything else, so just left it there. He led her down the hallways to his small fabrication lab. He held the door for her and entered behind her, waiting to see what she’d have to say.

He saw her expression fall into that normal neutral as she took in the lab. He tried to see it from her perspective, as a newcomer. He really couldn’t. The place was quiet, there were a few people working, totally absorbed in their projects. They didn’t even look up as he and Devina walked in.

“So,” Devina said to the room at large, “is this how you all really work, or do you have an early warning system?”

Merlin snapped his eyes to her face, which was a picture of disbelieving amusement. Someone in the room burst out laughing and he turned, trying to see who it was.

“Merlin,” she asked him, “is the room soundproof?”

He nodded an affirmative.

She started laughing, “Alright, show me how you were before you knew we were coming.”

Grant stood up, and he walked over to the only desktop computer and entered a few commands. They all looked a bit sheepish as heavy bass notes started to sound and music started to play. A screen dropped down and a projected movie started to play on it, captions on, sound off. He had no idea what it was. It was animated, that was really all the he recognized. 

Everyone started to shift around. Their lab coats came off, the postures relaxed, a white board was set up where obvious brain storming had happened. They all crowded around the same work table and Graham pulled open a laptop and they were going over notes for what projects they were in the middle of, what order to work on them, when to break and when to give it a rest. 

He’d never seen anything like this from his employees. He started at them for a minute and then stared at Devina.

They had all separated, going to work on their projects, tossing ideas back and forth, looking happier and far more comfortable then before. 

“How did you know they’d been like this?” he asked as he joined her at an empty table where she’d hefted her laptop bag. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye while she unpacked her laptop bag.

He mirrored her posture when she turned toward him and leaned one hip on the table. 

“Do you like to work the way that they were when we came in?” she asked him, serious.

He thought about it, “No, not really.”

“Can you work like this?” she asked, “Does it feel comfortable?”

He nodded, “It wouldn’t be my choice for music, but it is comfortable, yes.” 

She grinned, “Excellent. I know, because I went to an engineering school and I help run one of the biggest tech R&D departments in Europe. Of course this is how they’d be working. And look,” she said, pointing at Casey, who was wearing noise canceling headphones, “the music definitely isn’t for everyone.

“You know that R&D is a cooperative effort, and so they work together. Seriously, they are nerds at the core. Remember that, and you’ll be alright. I mean, shit, they are listening to techno music and watching god damn anime. Nothing like a good stereotype. But, I’d bet they switch it up and everyone’s preferences are addressed.”

Merlin nodded at her absently as he observed his people at work. He suddenly felt a surge of satisfaction at the sight before him. He wasn’t really sure how he’d forgotten what it was like to be in the thick of a team like that. He’d do his best not to forget, again. 

For the first time in years, he felt a creative surge. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d made something _new_. Running his division under Chester King had leached something from him that he suddenly was determined to get back. 

He smiled at Devina, and he saw the understanding in her eyes. She’d dealt with something similar, obviously. 

“So, what did you bring me to look at?” he asked her, shifting to face her laptop on the table.

She smiled as she opened her laptop and started it up. He noticed her operating systems start up was ridiculously fast and she pulled up her files by hand, rather than with the mouse. A set of schematics popped up onto the screen and she turned it to him. 

He looked it over while she reached back into her bag and pulled out a small pouch and dumped the contents into her hand before she set it on the table. He looked down at what was a garrote on the table.

“Is this the ring that you usually wear?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

He blinked. She certainly had a talent for weaponizing things. “What did you break?” He picked up the two ends, not fiddling with the wire at all. 

“The mechanism that keeps it together,” she said, and she pointed out a couple things. He saw immediately what the problem was. 

“How did you manage that?” he asked her. He could fix it and make it better, but he had to know why it hadn’t held up. 

She smiled a bit, looking sheepish, before she answered him, “I put a little too much force on it, I think. I, uh, used it, then it wouldn't stay closed.”

“Was it the first time you had used it?”

“Yeah,” she sounded resigned, “Good concept, it just didn’t hold up.”

“Indeed,” he said, and gestured to her laptop, “May I?”

“Sure,” she said, and pushed it nearer, getting close so that she could see what he was doing.

And thus began their long evening of redesigning and manufacturing several rings for her.

Merlin had more fun than he had in years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is welcome and encouraged.


	12. Fishing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin asks and Devina gives, but Harry is in for a rude awakening.

“Who’s Tristan?”

Devina looked over at Merlin from her stretch. He was still bent over the table, spooling out high tensile strength wire for her rings. He hadn’t looked up, or at least, he wasn’t looking up now.

“He’s my best friend,” she said as she slumped back down over the table. She had the inner and outer parts to her rings spread in front of her, waiting for the wire to be carefully thread through and secured.

She folded her arms on the table and rested her head on them, face turned toward Merlin, “I met him at MIT. He got in earlier than I had. He was fifteen when he arrived and I’d been there for a year. We were immediately inseparable.”

Merlin looked up at her and smiled, “And when you say he is your partner?”

“I mean that he is my partner,” she smiled in return. “We have separate homes, but we are most often found with each other. We also work very closely together.”

“At MI6,” Merlin stated blandly.

Devina considered Merlin for a full minute in silence. She felt the smile fall off her face, knew that her eyes grew distant and flat, knew that her shoulders squared and felt the fine tension sing along her muscles as she allowed the threat of everything she was become visible to someone trained to see it. 

Merlin carefully put his hands flat on the table in front of him and started at her, avidly taking it all in. She could see when he registered that she wasn’t threatening him, yet, but the potential was there. She carefully lifted one hand and rested a finger briefly on a single key on her laptop. When his eyes had followed the movement, she removed her hand and watched his eyes widen with the realization of what she’d just revealed to him.

“And you are?” he said quietly.

She pointed again.

“Before or after ‘R’?”

“Before,” she said, voice flat and empty.

“Shite,” he breathed out, “I can see why you are reluctant to part with that information. Thank you.”

“I understand,” she said, her voice slowly warming, “that lack of information is what makes you wary of me.” She took a moment to search for words. “For a long time, my existence was a danger to people. So I died. It’s difficult to set aside that knowledge.”

“Why, though?” he asked her.

She blinked and fought to keep her expression under control, “My grandmother had enemies.”

She left it at that.

}*{

Merlin watched her struggle with herself as he tried to parse the information that he now had. 

It was public record that Olivia Mansfield had been Devina Fredericks guardian and only family. Devina Fredericks had died when she was twenty-two, shorty after her return to England. She had reemerged only a few short years ago, after the death of Olivia Mansfield. 

She’d been the granddaughter of M. The M who had long held the reigns of an international spy agency. Of course she was in constant danger. He could better understand her habit of discretion. She hadn’t ever said the name of MI6 aloud and had found a way to tell him where she stood in the organization without speaking out loud. In a way that he could even justify keeping from Harry.

He changed the subject just a small amount, “How is it that you have so much autonomy?”

She grinned, “Tris and I are disgustingly white-hat. Always have been. However, we have proved time and time again that it is much better to let us work on our own terms than to try and control us.”

He went back to measuring out wire as he thought about what that could mean.

“Has anyone ever used you against one another?” he asked.

She outright laughed, “Well, you’d have to know who we are, first. Not many do. We are insane about our privacy,” she looked at him, eyes gleaming with humor. “It has not gone well for anyone who has ever had enough information to try.”

Merlin nodded and looked around the room, noticing that everyone else had left. The projection screen was now blank and the music had stopped. He looked back at Devina with wide eyes.

She smiled at him, “Yeah, we got a little caught up, didn’t we?”

He blinked and grinned at her, “Aye, we did. I’m surprised Harry hasn’t come looking for me, we were supposed to have dinner.”

She hummed, “It’s not that late, who knows, maybe he got caught up, himself. Ask him. You want me to clear out?” she asked, hitching her thumb over her shoulder at the door.

“No, hang on,” he said as he tapped the side of his glasses. “Harry. Yes, I still want to eat. Devina is here. Aye, I was going to suggest that. Let me ask her.” He looked at Devina, “Would you like to join us for dinner?”

“Yeah, sure,” she said and smiled before she pulled her phone out and started tapping at the screen. “My night is clear,” she said and winked at him.

“Did you have plans?” Merlin asked.

“No, but we tend to keep one another appraised when we are all on home soil,” she said.

“You mean Tristan? Harry did say you’d been seen in Rome, recently. Is that what you mean?” Merlin asked her with his brow furrowed.

“Uhm,” she trailed off and smiled a bit bashfully. “Well, not many people know about all of us. We don’t advertise. I mean Tristan, James, Alec and myself.”

“You are all in a relationship together?” he asked trying not to think of how that might work.

She started to giggle and when she looked up at him the giggles turned into outright laughter, “Oh fucking hell, Merlin, not like that, no!” Once she calmed down a bit, she clarified, “It’s polyamory, not a damn orgy.”

Merlin felt himself flush, “Apologies, I’m not terribly familiar with how that works.”

“Eh, you can’t really have an ideal, you’re working with people, after all. It works differently for everyone,” she shrugged still smiling. “What we have works for us.”

Merlin moved his shoulders in a small movement and looked back at the table, “Do you want to take this with you to finish up, or store it here and we can finish it later?”

“I’d like to leave it here, I think,” she said, “this was fun.”

Merlin smiled and nodded at her. He stood up and she followed as he showed her where he was going to stow her things for when she could come back and they could finish. It was companionable and he found himself looking forward to when she could return.

}*{

Harry looked up at the sharp knock on the door frame to his office before Eggsy stepped in and walked toward the chairs across from the desk and tilted his head at them.

“Eggsy, please sit,” Harry said, amused when Eggsy immediately slumped into one of the chairs. He was freshly showered and dressed down from a suit.

“Hey, Harry, what are you still doing here? Thought you and Merlin had exciting dinner plans or some such?” Eggsy asked him.

“We do,”Harry said. “Devina is joining us,” he added slyly, carefully watching Eggsy from his peripheral vision as he cleaned up his paperwork.

He had to stifle a smile when Eggsy sat up straight, “She is?”

“Yes, she and Merlin have been working on something down in the lab,” he said, “they should be here shortly.”

“She’s been here?” Eggsy asked. “How long?”

“Much of the evening, I believe. She called and asked for him earlier today,” Harry said, seemingly offhand. “Are you busy? Why don’t you join us?” he asked, looking up at him in question.

Harry wasn’t stupid; He was the head of an elite spy agency, and Eggsy was his protege. Of course he’d “cracked” Harry’s security; Harry had set up the dummy account for just that reason. He wondered how long it would take Eggsy to figure out. He also wondered how long it would take Eggsy to figure out that Devina probably already knew everything that Eggsy had looked at. Regardless, Eggsy had spent quite a lot of time reading up on everything that they had found on Devina and she seemed to have the ability to track people looking at her information, that it was on Kingsman servers seemed to mean nothing to her.

Eggsy looked at him for a moment, “Yeah, alright. Do I need to get dressed?”

“No, what you are wearing is fine,” Harry assured him with a smile.

At that moment, Merlin and Devina could be heard chatting as they came up the hall toward his office. From what he could understand, they were discussing composite metals and the different uses for them.

“Ah, here they are,” he said just as there was another knock on the door frame. 

Devina and Merlin walked in, both dressed in their normal work clothes. Merlin had on trousers and a jumper over a shirt and tie while Devina was dressed a bit more causally in loose cut cargo pants that fit her hips well, paired with a sleeveless, button up top and her laptop bag slung across her body. Both had on work boots and were carrying jackets with them.

“Merlin, Devina, I just asked Eggsy to join us, and so he shall. Ready?” he asked them with a smile as he stood from his desk.

“Aye,” and, “Yeah,” were the answers that he received. 

“Excellent,” he said, and they went. Eggsy and Harry led the way quietly while Merlin and Devina brought up the rear, starting their conversation right back up. Though now knife and gun smithing were being introduced as they talked about heat and pressure ratings of those same metals.

Eggsy looked at Harry with and eyebrow quirked, “Did you anticipate that?” he asked, jerking his head back to indicate the two techs behind them.

“Not quite to that extent,” he said as they heard Devina invite Merlin to come see her shop, “but it was possible. They are in the same line of work, after all.”

“You found out what she does at MI6, then?” Eggsy asked Harry eagerly.

“As far as we can tell, she does exactly what she said she does. She has some seniority and works in a technical capacity. You do know that the MI6 Engineering and R& D departments make up the quartermaster branch?” Harry explained quietly.

“Shit, really?” Eggsy asked, “So, you aren’t kidding when you say that she and Merlin are in the same line of work.”

“Indeed,” Harry told him, “she is very good.”

Behind them, Harry could hear Merlin asking Devina about a movie. He turned slightly in order to hear a little better.

Devina chuckled, “They were watching and anime series called Cowboy Bebop. It’s interesting, for sure, did you know the music?”

Harry could hear the smile in Merlin’s voice when he answered, “No, I definitely did not.”

“What are you two talking about?” Harry asked, amused.

Merlin chuckled and Eggsy blinked before he smiled when Devina spoke up, “I just reminded Merlin what a productive work environment actually looks like.”

She looked at Harry and Eggsy and then back to Merlin and amended her statement, “Well, for nerds, anyway.”

Eggsy laughed, “You callin’ Merlin a nerd?” 

They had reached the bullet train and were all settling in when Devina asked, “Shatner or Stewart?”

Harry and Eggsy blinked and Merlin said, “Stewart,” like it was obvious.

“Hamil or Christensen?”

This time Merlin made a face, “Hamil, of course.”

Devina grinned and asked another question, “Solo or Reynolds?”

Merlin frowned at her and sternly said, “I refuse to choose.”

“Ender’s Game or Dune.”

“Both are favorites,” Merlin said and smiled as he sat back.

Devina laughed and looked between Harry, who was staring at Merlin like he’d never seen him before, and Eggsy who was grinning as he caught on to what Devina had been doing.

It wasn’t that Devina was asking him about things only the nerdy would know about, it was the quickness to Merlin’s answers, the assurance that his answers were correct and the idea that he’d argue his preferences if given reason to.

“Yes, Eggsy,” Devina smiled at him, “Merlin’s a nerd.”

Harry almost startled when Merlin snorted a laugh and said, “Aye, I might be, but what does that make you?”

She looked at Merlin next to her and grinned, and held her fist up, “Nerd power, baby’, “she spoke with Boston in her voice, “nothin’ but.” 

Eggsy looked bewildered when Merlin reached up and bumped her fist. 

“Next time,” she said, “I’m brining ‘Despicable Me.’ I might be able to get you to start calling the techs ‘minions.’ Ours started to do it, themselves, it’s fantastic.”

Merlin laughed, “Alright, it’s a plan. We’ll get them to put it on.”

Harry looked between the two of them and was torn. On the one hand, he was happy that she’d gained a connection with Merlin. It was good to see the two of them bantering, lovely to know that Merlin could talk with someone who wasn’t an underling about things that Harry found incomprehensible.

On the other hand, he wanted more of Devina’s time to himself. He wanted her out at HQ more often. He wanted to practice tai chi with her, he wanted to watch her train Roxanne, he wanted to talk to her about, well, everything. 

He glanced at Eggsy. 

And he wanted her to get to know Eggsy. It would do the boy some good, and, well, he could admit that he thought Eggsy could do with a friend that he didn’t have to lie to about his life. Maybe more than a friend. He’d seen Eggsy’s interest, but he had no idea about Devina’s. 

She hadn’t exactly been forthcoming about personal information. If it hadn’t been for Andrew, they wouldn’t have even known that she was a bit gender bent.

Harry shook it off and decided to press a bit now that the conversation between Devina and Merlin had tapered into a companionable silence.

“So, Devina, how was Rome?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is welcome and encouraged.


	13. Dinner Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eggsy gets more than he bargained for when he agrees to help Devina out of the night.

Eggsy was trying to get his head on straight and his mind wrapped around watching Merlin joke with someone when Harry asked Devina about Rome. He hadn’t known she’d been out of the country and had to stop his reflexive questions about it.

He saw her eyes light up with mischief as she answered simply, “It was lovely.”

“And how is James?” Harry asked with a small smile.

Eggsy watched Devina’s face as she grinned, “You know James, Harry?”

“Well, no, I don’t,” Harry said looking mildly uncomfortable.

She just hummed and didn’t otherwise respond. She turned to Eggsy and smiled.

“It’s about manners, Eggsy. The inquiry was far too familiar,” she told him and turned to grin at Harry, “for someone he isn’t personally acquainted with.”

She continued to look at Harry while she spoke to Eggsy, her tone light and conspiratorial, “He doesn’t expect me to know better, but because I do, I can contain him in his own sense of what is proper,” she winked.

Merlin laughed and Eggsy looked at Harry, who seemed to be blushing slightly, before looking back at Devina, delighted with what she’d accomplished. It was rare to see Harry off his game.

Eggsy grinned at her when she looked back at him and said, “You see, Eggsy, most people never learn that they don’t have to answer a question just because it’s been asked. Proper etiquette can be a weapon as much as a shield.”

“Shit, Harry,” Eggsy said around his chuckles, “if your lessons had been more like that, I’d have been more keen to learn.”

Harry took the three of them laughing at him with surprising good grace. Devina smiled at them all and told them, “I have to tell you, I grew up surrounded by oblique political maneuvering. Both subtle and obvious power plays were on display almost daily; my grandmother excelled at all of it and made sure that I did, as well. However, it is not my preference.”

Eggsy decided to take the bait, “Alright, so why were you in Rome?”

Her eyes gleamed, “Ostensibly, I was there on an extended layover. In actuality, I was there to see James.”

“Who’s James?” Eggsy asked, smiling, “your boyfriend?”

Devina laughed, “For that trip, he was a co-worker that I stopped to help with a bit of tech on the way to my actual destination.”

Eggsy sat back with a small smile. It had been an evasion, pure and simple, but it left a door open that he’d not really known he’d been looking for. He wouldn’t deny his interest in Devina, but he wasn’t about to jump at her. She’d murder him. Possibly literally.

He watched as Harry and Merlin accepted that she wouldn’t give them what they wanted from that line of questioning. From Merlin’s posture, he knew something that he and Harry didn’t about her and he wondered if he’d be able to find out what it was.

They began to chat, genially, about a wide variety of subjects. The conversation was enjoyable and they kept at it all the way to the restaurant and through a rather good dinner. It wasn’t until they were sipping drinks after that things took a turn.

}*{

“John’s activated his distress signal.”

Devina blew out her breath in a slow, controlled exhale that caught the attention of the three men sitting with her that she’d been laughing with. They’d had an incredibly pleasant evening swapping stories that had less to do with espionage and more to do with just living.

She closed her eyes for a moment and when she opened them, she knew that her expression was more distant as she prepared for work. She made a “just a moment” gesture before she answered Tristan.

“Send the location to my phone, I’ll go get him, now,” she clipped out. “I’ll take Eggsy with me, if he is amenable.”

“Oh, good. Information sent, I’ll update you with what I get.”

“Roger that.”

She pulled her phone out and said, “Eggsy, would you like to join me? I have to go retrieve a friend and could possibly use some back up, given the friend.”

She looked up and Harry’s face was blank, Merlin was scrutinizing her and Eggsy was grinning like mad and nodding his head.

She smiled slightly at Merlin, “If you can’t figure it out, I’ll most likely tell you, later. Harry, you and I need to speak soon. Gentlemen, I do apologize for my abrupt departure, but, well, I have to go.”

She stood and bowed slightly at them before she turned and head toward the door. She could hear Eggsy scrambling after her as she stopped at the hostess stand and gave her several bills.

“This is for our dinner, please tell them it was my pleasure,” she smiled charmingly at the woman behind the stand.

“Alright, I’ll apply it to the bill,” she was told. Devina had no worries about having shorted the tab, she was certain she’d overpaid by quite a bit.

She was already dialing before she was all the way out the door. She stood on the sidewalk, waiting for Eggsy to join her as she waited for the man she was calling to pickup.

“Holmes,” came from her phone just as Eggsy joined her.

“Mycroft,” she said as she moved out of the direct path of foot traffic, “it’s Patrica Brown. What's your brother been up to?”

“I haven't spoken to him recently.” was the reply. Meaning: he didn’t know.

“Ah, I see. I am on my way to the doctor, emergency visit, can you pick us up after?” she asked, he would understand that John was in trouble and she’d need clean up.

“Of course, I’ll be there with the usual,” He’d be there with a crew.

“Thank you, Mycroft. No need to inform Sherlock, as yet.” she said and hung up.

She smiled at Eggsy as she started walking and he fell into step beside her, “I have a friend who has a flatmate that is determined to get into dangerous situations. They often go after John to try and get to Sherlock. I gave him a way to let me know if he ever needed help.”

“Our kind of danger?” Eggsy asked.

“Not usually, no. John is more than capable of handling himself,” she explained as she led him down and ally, “so if he called, it’s bad. I have no idea what’s happened, just that he thinks I can get him out. And, he knows what I am, so he knows exactly what kind of help to expect.”

She looked Eggsy over where he stood in jeans and a zip up hooded sweater over his t-shirt, “We’ll have to make a stop. Come on, I have every faith that you can keep up, because I won’t wait for you.”

With that, she started her mad sprint across London to her newer flat. She needed more weapons and Eggsy needed a gun.

}*{

Eggsy just managed to keep up with her. He was doing his best not to gasp for breath when she finally slowed and strolled up a street, what street, he had no idea. He’d lost track of where they were fairly quickly. The woman could free run. He had though he had the corner on parkour in espionage, but apparently not.

His breath was finally calming down when she opened the door and looked at him with an amused expression as she motioned him through. He stepped in and to the side to wait. 

She stepped in and closed the door behind them, engaging the locks. She didn’t turn on a light, instead she walked past him into what he found to be the living room when she turned on a light there. It was comfortably furnished and he came in just as she was swinging a very full book case from the wall. 

Behind it was a weapons cache that made him grin. She pulled open a drawer and tossed something at him. He caught it and saw that it was an empty holster. When he looked back up at her, she was loading a magazine and she quietly told him to put it on. He shrugged and zipped off his hoodie, adjusted the holsters straps and pulled it on. He was threading it through his belt when she stepped up to him. He finished up and when he stood straight, he noticed that she was grinning and holding a gun to him.

“Here, you should be quite familiar with this,” she said.

He had to laugh, it was identical to a Kingsman issued pistol. He grinned, popped and checked the magazine before he slid it home in the holster. She was still smiling when she slid two extra magazines in place on the opposite side. She then held up a knife for him and slid it home in it’s place under the gun. He’d not seen that before and appreciated the ease with which he could access the knife.

After he’d checked the draw on everything, he watched what she was doing. She’d stripped off her waistcoat and had switched out her own harness. Now, she had her knife strapped down her back and a gun under each arm. She pulled out and put on a belly band that held what he took to be throwing implements, a series of short spikes, and four magazines. He watched her check the access on each thing before she pulled out a ring and looked at it with regret before she slipped it over her thumb.

“What’s wrong with the ring?” he asked her, still in awe over how many weapons she’d strapped to herself.

“Eh,” she shrugged, “if I use it, I’ll break it. But, if I need it, then I need it, yeah?”

He let it go, figuring that he could ask about it later. She put the boxes of ammunition away and closed up the cache. 

“Hang on a minute, I’ve got something else you need for this,” she told him and he watched her go and sprint up some stairs.

He looked around a bit before he went over to the bookcase to see if he could swing it open and it wouldn’t budge. He huffed, of course not. She seemed to take her security very seriously, but you couldn’t blame him for trying to get a better look at what she had. He stepped back and realized that there was nothing personal of hers in the space he was in. He wandered out of the living room and saw a kitchen and an open door that let to a half bath. He spared a thought that they were in a safe house.

He met her back in the living room when she trotted back down the stairs. She had zipped her own hooded sweatshirt over her arsenal and walked up to him and stopped well into his personal space. He leaned back a little when she reached toward his face. 

“Shit, sorry,” she shook her head and held out her hand. In it was something that looked very like a hearing aid. At his raised eyebrow, she chuckled, “we need to be able to communicate.”

He shrugged and turned his right ear toward her. He felt her set it into his ear and whatever the insert was made of, it molded instantly to the shape of he ear canal. She smoothed the back piece around the back of his earlobe and he suppressed a shiver. He could feel it resting against his ear and it came down a little far in the back and just rested against his jaw bone.

“OK to test, Tristan,” Devina said nonsensically. 

Eggsy did startle when and unfamiliar voiced sounded in his ear, “Hello, Eggsy, I’m Tristan. If you speak normally, Devina and I should both be able to hear you.”

“Who’re you then, mate?” Eggsy asked, and Devina laughed.

“Just think of me as Devina’s version of Merlin and you should be fine,” Tristan said, “Devina go for test.”

“Test for Eggsy go, my end is green,” Devina said.

“Yeah, I hear you,” Eggsy said, motioning toward his ear. 

“All comms are green,” Tristan said, “Alright, you two. John is being held in and abandoned warehouse, of all the fucking things. No eyes in the building, but I have eyes ON the building. 

“So far, I have spotted six mercenary types and only one of them is a sniper. I don’t know what’s inside the building, but it’s a pretty standard perimeter set up. With two of you, you will be able to take them out before they know that something is going on.

“I spoke to Mycroft, he’s happy to let you get John out, but would love if you left someone inside _alive_ for him to question. Devina.”

“Alright,” Devina huffed, “fine. Eggsy, you will have to do that. When we breach the building, make sure you leave one alive, because I won’t. _Especially_ if John is hurt.”

Eggsy gave an affirmative, while wondering what in the hell he’d gotten himself into when he agreed to go with her. 

And who the fuck was Mycroft?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is welcome and encouraged.


	14. Debriefed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John gets rescued and Devina is still tight lipped while Tristan spills his guts. Sort of.

Devina was considering Eggsy’s uncharacteristic silence as she led him to the car that Mycroft had loaned her to take them back to the shop. She knew that Mycroft would be badgering her, later, about why she’d been with a Kingsman agent when she went to get John. As it was, she wasn’t happy that’d she’d actually have to debrief with Harry as to why she’d taken his agent with her on a murder spree. She hoped that Harry and Merlin knew who Mycroft Holmes was so that she’d be able to assure them that they wouldn’t come under scrutiny for Eggsy’s part in the evening. Frankly, they were terrible British spies if they didn’t know who a player as powerful as Mycroft was.

She had no idea why John had been kidnapped and she didn’t care. It either had something to do with Sherlock or Mycroft and was none of her business. Her business had been to get him out. And so she had done. With Eggsy’s “help.”

She hid her grin. She could have easily don’t this job by herself. 

Tristan had sent Eggsy after the sniper and she had taken care of the five on the ground. She’d been quick and efficient, as usual. Neither of them had pulled their guns, but her equipment needed to be cleaned (again with the blood all over her shit). Through the sniper’s scope, Eggsy had gotten a fantastic view of her skills at throwing things and how quickly she could draw her knife and put it to good use.

She had made some impatient noises at Tristan when he made her wait on Eggsy to breach the building so that one of the men would be kept alive. She hadn’t been joking when she said that she wouldn’t be able to do it. There had only been three on the interior. Eggsy had done the smart thing and gone for the one closest to John, as he was the most likely to know anything. While he’d incapacitated that man, Devina had taken down the other two. 

It was only a moment before Tristan was telling her that Mycroft was on his way in. She’d quickly strode over to John where he was securely tied to a chair, checked him for injuries and broke his bonds. He was unconscious and she held him upright in the chair as gently as she could, kneeling in front of him and stroking his hair back from his face. 

When the door opened again, her gun was out and pointed before she even thought about it. Mycroft was standing in the doorway with medics shifting about behind him. She holstered the gun and allowed them through. 

Eggsy had just been looking at her. He kept quiet and watched her with John and saw her interact with Mycroft. Heard her demand without comment.

“I trust I’ll hear from you if you need me to end this business?”

Mycroft had flicked his gaze between her and Eggsy, hiding it well that he had questions and in the end had nodded his consent. When Anthea had walked in, Mycroft told her to have their driver take them wherever Mr. Unwin and Ms. Brown needed to go.

As usual, Anthea sent a heated glare in Devina’s direction. Devina in return gave her a feral grin.

Devina held in a sigh of resignation when they got through the door to the shop and locked it behind them. It was well after hours and the store front was dark. She could see lights on upstairs and looked at Eggsy and rolled her eyes when he just blinked and looked at her with an intensity that she didn’t want to understand.   
She just turned and made her way up the stairs and Eggsy fell in behind her. She made her way to Harry’s office, rapped on the door and entered upon his permission. She stepped up to the chair and waited for him to acknowledge her and indicate that she should sit before she sloppily sprawled in the chair and tried not to grin at Harry who was frowning at her sternly as he took in her rumpled appearance and the small splatters of blood on her clothing.

Devina started to chuckle at Harry when he couldn’t keep up his stern facade. She’d retrieved her friend, and didn’t have to worry that her actions would bite her in the ass. That made it a good day.

}*{

Eggsy thought that he probably should never, like really _never_ , tell Devina that Tristan had been spilling her secrets to him the whole time he was in Eggsy’s ear. He definitely would not be telling Harry that he’d learned so much about Devina, or how. 

He’d gasped when he’d seen her in action. It was better even than watching Harry beat Dean’s thugs in the Black Prince. It was more like watching Harry at the church, except that she had known _exactly_ what she was doing. Merlin had been right. She was a killer and she did it almost effortlessly.

“I feel you should know,” Tristan was saying in his ear as he watched Devina throw a spike in to one man’s forehead and seamlessly pull her knife from her leg and flipped it up to cut another man’s throat with the end before she flipped it in her grip so that the blade lay back along her forearm, “that you are now one of three people to see her work and live.”

“That’s it?” he breathed out. 

“Her Shihan and I are the only other two,” he said, “and I’ve only seen it first hand one time.” Tristan then launched into the story of how he learned that the best friend he’d ever has was a killer.

Thankfully, Eggsy was used to getting a running commentary while he was working. Not that he had much work to do; Devina definitely had it handled. Tristan moved on to giving him a quick rundown of Devina’s life from the time of her parents not-at-all-an-accident until now. Tristan had only interrupted himself twice. Once to tell Devina to wait for Eggsy, which was met with a long-suffering noise that had Eggsy’s lips twitching in an effort not to laugh, and the other when he told Eggsy which man to go after and keep alive for the mysterious Mycroft.

Eggsy stood back and just listened to Tristan while Devina handled the man who showed up to take over. Her friend had not regained consciousness by the time the medics took him away. He heard the exchange of pleasantries, the veiled demand that she be called when they figured out who had take John. He was amused at watching the man try to stare her down.

And then there was a woman that glared at Devina. It was incredibly hostile and he almost laughed out loud when he saw the feral grin that Devina had given her. She absolutely looked like she’d happily tear the woman’s throat out with her teeth. Eggsy loved every moment of it.

Eggsy did notice that Devina didn’t care that he wasn’t talking. She seemed almost relieved, in fact. Tristan was still running his mouth, but Eggsy started to notice that what he was hearing were bare facts without embellishment. There were not personal thoughts or feelings expressed about what he was talking about. This had been planned carefully. He now knew _about_ Devina, but this wouldn’t get him any closer to knowing _her_.

When they got back to the shop, he allowed Devina to escort him inside as he was furiously thinking about what to do next. He watched her intently and she rolled her eyes at him before she turned and went up to Harry’s office.

“You need to do some more research,” Tristan commented. “Look up the asexual spectrum and focus on demisexual. You need to know all about that.”

“Alright,” he breathed. He recognized the word, but he’d only skimmed over that portion of the things he’d found when looking up the words that Andrew had given him. 

“Also, you should know, Devina is going to figure out that I did this. Hell, she probably already has. She won’t be angry with you, but she will need to adjust to you _knowing_ ,” Tristan’s voice was bland as ever.

Eggsy hummed acceptance. He could understand, a bit. She guarded her privacy very well, for a reason, obviously. He wasn’t sure why Tristan was telling him, but he would have his reasons, Eggsy knew.

He quietly followed Devina up the stairs and found her sitting in Harry’s office and both of them were giggling. He strode forward and waited for Harry’s acknowledgment before he to sat. They finally settled and Harry smiled at him before he started grilling them about the night.

The debriefing was going very well until Devina mentioned Mycroft’s clean up team.

“You know Mycroft Holmes?” Harry asked her.

She just grinned at him.

“Of course you do. Your grandmother was M, why wouldn’t you know Mycroft Holmes?” Harry was muttering under his breath. Eggsy was dying on the inside, he loved seeing Harry so thrown off.

“Anyone going to tell me who this bloke is?” Eggsy asked the room at large.

Devina snorted, “He holds a ‘minor position’ in the British government.”

Eggsy looked at her, “You takin’ the piss?”

She started to laugh as Harry looked at him admonishingly and said, “For all intents and purposes, he _is_ the British government.” He looked at Devina, “Can you tell me why he was there, tonight.”

She hummed, “No.”

Harry sighed, “Alright, I suppose that covers everything, then.”

“Thanks, Harry,” Devina said and smiled as she stood, “I just wanted you to know that Eggsy and Kingsman will receive no reprisals for having been with me.”

“Much appreciated,” Harry smiled his response. 

Eggsy was suddenly looking up at Devina. She had crowded in between his chair and the desk and was holding her hand out and gestured toward his head.

“Give it over, Eggsy,” her voice was still light, but her face was wary. “While I hope you’ve enjoyed Tristan’s commentary, it’s time for it to end.”

Eggsy sighed as he reluctantly reached up and uncurled the piece from his ear and tugged the speaker out of his ear canal. He handed it over with a rueful smile.

“He was alright to work with, not quite what I’m used to,” Eggsy commented.

He counted it a win that her lips twitched into a small smile, “Yeah, he knows what he is doing. I’ll collect the rest from you, later.”

Eggsy turned in his seat and watched her walk out the door, wondering if it was wishful thinking to read into her words. He sighed heavily as he turned back to Harry who was looking at him with narrowed eye and a set jaw. He centered himself to give his version of the events.

Thankfully, Devina had given a true and unembellished account of the events, so he’d just be telling from his point of view. There were a couple details that Eggsy could add, but he refused to think about what he was going to leave out.

}*{

Harry just stared at Eggsy, willing him to squirm in his seat. He wasn’t about to admit that they’d been blind on the ground. Their access to CCTV had been scrambled when they’d tried to find and follow Eggsy and Devina after they had left the restaurant. 

“Tristan?” he finally asked, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, told me to think of him as Devi’s version of Merlin, yeah?” Eggsy said with a grin, just as the man is question strolled into the office after a brief knock.

Harry watched Merlin slide into the chair across from him and they both looked at Eggsy. Eggsy didn’t squirm, much to Harry’s disappointment, but he did seem more than willing to answer any questions they had.

“You spoke to Tristan?” Merlin asked.

Eggsy nodded and Harry asked, “You know who this person is?”

Merlin smiled, “I do. She mentioned him to me. They met at MIT, seems they have been inseparable since then.” 

Harry stilled and asked, “When did you find this out?”

Merlin’s smile deepened, “When she and I were working down in the lab.”

Harry blinked at Merlin a couple times and asked, “Why would she give that up?”

“Harry,” Merlin started and paused still searching for words. “Christ, it sounds so trite, but she is looking for genuine friendship.”

“Friendship?” Harry asked, like it was a foreign word.

Merlin rolled his eyes, “Don’t tell me that you don’t have a personal interest. You like her and want to spend time with her. Why?”

Harry looked taken aback for a moment before he sighed heavily and admitted, “I don’t know.”

Eggsy broke in at that point, “This what being a spy for too long does to you?” he asked, incredulous, “You can’t recognize when you are just _interested_ in someone? Friendly or otherwise?”

Harry frowned and fired back, “When was the last time you were interested in someone without completely questioning their motives? Civilian or otherwise?”

“Well, shit,” Eggsy said, “you got me there. Can’t be sure anyone’s a civy, now can we?”

Merlin interjected, “Well, we certainly know that she isn’t a civilian. Can we agree that she isn’t out to get us?”

Eggsy laughed, “Yeah, mate, she made sure I was well out of things, tonight.”

Harry just nodded shortly while he kept his face stern.

“Good,” Merlin said, “Moving on, then. Eggsy, tell us what happened from your perspective."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is welcome and encouraged.


	15. Explaination

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Devina and Tristan have a night in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll admit that this one got away from me a little bit.

Devina way laying on the roof of the building her work shop was in and staring up at the sky. The light pollution was terrible, but it was one of the few places that she felt secure and where she was sure to be alone. She needed a moment to herself.

Not that she expected that moment to last very long. She was waiting for Tristan to contact her, again. He’d been suspiciously silent most of the night and had contributed little to her actions. She was used to doing this type of thing on her own, but she’d thought he might have more to say with Eggsy along, or just general questions about John. But there had been nothing for her, other than to demand that she wait for her back up.

She had figured out fairly quickly that Tristan was talking to Eggsy. Just about non-stop. She worked with too many people who had handlers in their ears all the time to miss the tell-tale signs of someone talking in their ear. Even she wasn’t free of those tells when she was sitting still, most people just didn’t know what they were looking at.

Apparently, Tristan had had a lot to say. And from the way Eggsy’s eyes had kept flicking over her, what he had to say had been about her. She had not seen fear from him, which was fantastic, but there had been an edge of awe now and then. She did rather enjoy the beginnings of deep respect in his gaze.

She was sure that Tristan had his reasons for telling Eggsy anything about her. Given their history together, she was very curious about what had been said. What stories had he shared, what experiences. Had he talked about the mundane parts of their lives, or had he talked about the early years of his involvement in her work? There were, of course, things she rather hoped he hadn’t talked about, but if there was anyone whose judgment she trusted, it was Tristan’s.

“Devina.”

She smiled when the voice sounded in her ear, “Hey, Tris.”

“Why can’t I see you in the shop?” he asked.

“Because I am lounging on the roof,” she said and her smiled turned to a grin.

“Do you need some time?” he asked her. It was rare that she was deliberately out of his sight.

“No, love, I’ve had my moment. Been waiting for you, actually,” she told him, “what took you so long?”

“Honestly? I thought you might be mad,” Tristan’s voice was hesitant.

“I trust you, Tris,” she made the statement firmly, “I figure you had your reasons, though I am curious to hear about them and what you told him.”

“Is this how you’d like to have this conversation?” he asked her.

“No, but it is how it started,” she chuckled. “Are you at yours? I know that the boys are due back, soon, and I they’d be far more likely to be angry about this, don’t you think?”

Tristan laughed, “Yes, I am and, yes, they would. Especially that I didn’t tell you I was going to do it. I don’t need to contend with the _both_ of them being justifiably angry with me.”

“Alright, love, I’ll be there shortly. I have to clean all my gear when I get there. Put the tea on, yeah?”

“Sure thing, Devi, I’ll see you soon,” Tristan said and fell silent.

}*{

Tristan was waiting in his living room when Devina let herself into his flat. He was much more relaxed than he expected to be for the impending conversation. She wasn’t mad. She trusted him. He should know better than to underestimate the place he had in her life by now, but he was both to terrified of losing her and of her missing out on something wonderful to keep himself from interfering.

“Oh, you really were worried,” Devina commented as she noticed he’d dug out the full tea set and added some biscuits to the tray. There were also a couple drop cloths folded on the coffee table and the things that she would need to clean up her gear before throwing the straps into the wash.

He looked at her curiously when she leaned over where his laptop was open and accessed his home environmental controls. She kicked the heat up a few notches and turned to smile at him before she stepped back and unfurled the drop clothes over the end of the couch and coffee table that wasn’t occupied by him and the tea set. They overlapped on the floor between the furniture. She motioned for him to pour before she stated to shuck her clothes. 

He grinned at her when he realized that was why she’d bumped up the temperature. Her clothing was filthy, both from the fight and lying on a London rooftop. He poured the tea and she left her clothing in a pile on the drop cloth on the floor and started to pull all of her weapons out. She pulled the knives out first and laid them out neatly before she pulled the guns out one at a time, popping the magazines and racking the slide back to eject the load before she placed them on the table. Once all her weapons were out, she took her holsters off and dropped them on her pile of clothing before she trotted off to the laundry room. 

Tristan smiled as he watched her walk away.

She came back after a minute and flopped down on the couch and pulled her legs up in a half-lotus before she leaned forward and grabbed her cup of tea. After a long sip, she leaned sideways and shoulder bumped him where he sat before she kissed his cheek. 

“So,” she started as she leaned forward and exchanged her teacup for a cloth and one of her knives, “what’s got you so worried?”

He quirked half his mouth up in a smile and asked, “Are you going to stab me if you do decide you are mad?”

“It’s a good thing that I _know_ you know better,” she remarked without looking at him, “or I’d be offended.”

He chuckled and shifted so that he was leaning back on the arm of the couch where he could watch her. 

“Indeed, even when you have been furious with me, I’ve never felt that you were a danger,” he told her.

She looked at him and smiled again before she went back to her knives. He sighed when he realized that she was waiting him out. 

“Alright,” he started, “Eggsy.” He paused and squirmed a bit.

“Charming little fucker, isn’t he?” she laughed, “This is kinda funny, Tris, you were sure enough to talk to him, but now you are worried?”

“Devi,” he sighed, “you know that you never talk about that past, right? Not really. Not the significant things.”

“I think the things I talk about are incredibly significant,” she looked halfway between confused and concerned.

“Why?” he asked, “because you talk about me? You and me? And more recently, James and Alec?”

She blinked at him, “Yes.”

“Shit,” he muttered as he reached up to run a frustrated hand through his hair. “Am I the most significant thing to happen to you?”

She stopped put down the knife and the cloth she’d been cleaning it with. She looked at him steadily for a minute and he grew more and more concerned with the way the emotion was slowly dropping away from her face.

“What do you want me to say?” she asked. “Everything about my life was a secret, other than the basics. I can’t even make a cover out of my own life because so much of it was a god damn secret. It’s great, Tristan, it’s fucking awesome how I can tell people that I was in training to be a fantastic killer from the time I was six. That I killed my first person when I was eight and how ridiculously proud I was that I was able to put my training to use, right up until I was tied to a chair and beaten unconscious. That all of my extra curricular activities were gear toward furthering my training.” As she spoke she voice got deeper and her volume increased marginally. Her face became a bit more animated and he could see a small amount of anger beneath her calm.

“Should I talk about how Shihan used to set people on me? I know that you know about the four times I was kidnapped by M’s enemies, but did I ever tell you about all the times he had to come get me from the people that _he_ sent after me? Because the only way that I could actually learn was to go through it over and over again? Did I ever tell you, that night on the bridge, that I briefly thought that was what was going on? Another test.

“Who would you have me tell about that? Because I’m sure people would respond really well to how I excelled at every fucking bit of it. How great I am at spotting and evading a tail, how I can get out of pretty much any bonds you put on me? Should I talk about how well I can stand up to being repeatedly beaten and raped while I wait for just a moment that I can take advantage of?”

He could barely meet her eyes as she went on, her own eyes burning, “Or should I talk about the jobs. Should I tell people about the first time Shihan took me on a job? About how I _earned_ the name Sukoshi Yami by being the best natural killer anyone had seen in an age? How I spit blood into someone’s eye after they insulted Shihan for teaching a little white girl and he let me beat them to death with my bare hands? How that incident lead to the absolutely rigid control of my temper?”

He had no idea what was showing on his face in that moment because all he could feel was shock. She _never_ talked like this. After a moment, she turned back to the table and picked up another knife and started to clean it while she spoke some more.

“Or should I talk about how when I came home, I had to die in order to, not only keep myself, but my country safe? Because MI6 couldn’t continue to grind to a halt every time I came up against it’s enemies? About how I went for years without the three things in my life that brought me any happiness? About how I still don’t know where one is and in order to get back another one, the last had to die for real? About how at that point we were so far apart that it took two spies to bring us back together?”

She put down the last knife now that it was clean and picked up the whetstone that Tristan had prepared for her and began to methodically sharpen her knives, “Are those the significant things that you would like me to talk about?”

Tristan was trying to shake off the shock of hearing all that come out of Devina at once. She wasn’t a huge talker, they usually didn’t need to be, and he felt like shit for the turn the conversation had taken.

“Well, fuck, Devi,” Tristan breathed out, “when you put it like that, shit. I’m sorry for approaching this conversation the way that I did.”

He reached out carefully to touch her bare shoulder. She put down her knife and stone before she looked at him. He launched himself at her and was nothing but relieved when he heard her laugh as she caught him and let them tip to the other arm of the couch gently. She wrapped him up in her arms and legs as she kissed his hair while he tried to wrap himself back around her.

“Shall we try again?” she asked quietly against his hair well it fell over his forehead.

He nodded and just held her tighter.

“I understand what you meant, Tristan, but even you don’t know it all. I would have been a killer, even without Mitsuo. He gave me a way to do it that wouldn’t end up with me locked up in an asylum, yeah? And some of the things that happened along the way, well, I don’t think anyone would accept them without thinking that I should be pitied or that I was forced into becoming what I am.

“So, let’s not worry about what I don’t talk about, alright? What did you tell Eggsy?”

Tristan kissed the side of her neck before he answered her, “I really just told him the same thing that we told James and Alec when you came to MI6. You know, that scrubbed file we gave them?”

He felt her nod, “I remember. It was ridiculously bare of any real information. Well, except that I was kidnapped too many times and evaded a couple more.”

“But gives a hint about the intricacies of your background. I also told him about the bridge, from my side. Gives you are reason to be private and wary.”

She chuckled, “Being an assassin will do that, as well.”

“Oh,” he said, “I also told him to look up demisexuality.”

She hummed at him, amused, “So, why did you feel like you needed to tell Eggsy all that, anyway?”

“For a couple of reasons,” he said as he nuzzled into her. “First, the people in your life that are closest to you know it, but you don’t tell. Second, I didn’t want this to be like James.”

“What do you mean, like James?” she asked and stilled for a moment.

“The minute you saw Eggsy’s file, you were like you were the first time you saw James’ file come across your grandmother’s desk. And here we are _years_ later. I didn’t want it to take that long,” he said and smiled into her skin.

She chuckled, “I can see your point. That, well, there were extenuating circumstances.”

“Yes,” he agreed, “but unlike James, who accepts those parts of you because no one in MI6 doesn’t have a horrifying past, Eggsy will actually like those parts of you as much as he likes any other part of you.”

It was a moment before she spoke, “The same way that you like them, eh?”

“Yes,” was his simple reply. “You let him _see_ it, Devi. Some part of you needs someone else who will accept you, completely.”

She just hummed, noncommittally.

He smiled and they remained cuddled up on the couch for awhile before she said, “I need to finish up. Why don’t you pick a movie and break out the hard stuff?”

He agreed wholeheartedly and they got on with their evening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is welcome and encouraged.


	16. Deal with it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eggsy and Merlin watch Devina and Roxanne while they speculate.

“What are you watching?” Eggsy asked Merlin as he walked into the control room. 

Merlin was at his desk, away from the center control where minor missions were always running and watching video feed of the Kingsman gymnasium. Merlin looked up at him and tipped his head in invitation for Eggsy to join him. Eggsy found a spare chair and rolled it up next to Merlin before he sat in it and scooted as close as he dared.

The screen showed Roxanne and Devina. They were sitting on the mat facing each other, both in a half-lotus. There were what looked like balls on strings and clubs laying on the mats next to them.

“I’ve never seen Lancelot look quite so skeptical,” Merlin said as he went back to staring at the monitor. 

“Can you show me the whole thing?” Eggsy asked him.

“No, Devina asked that we not record when she spars or trains here,” Merlin told him not looking away from the screen.

“And you listened to her?” his voice was incredulous.

Merlin’s mouth quirked up into a little smile, “Not until I went to review to video of her little bout with Geraint and it had already been scrubbed from our servers.”

“She’s that good?” Eggsy wasn’t entirely surprised, he knew that she had to be good with technology if she worked in q-branch, but he’d never seen her do anything more complicated than text on her phone.

Merlin’s eyes shifted just a bit toward Eggsy before they focused firmly on the scene in front of him, “Yes.”

“Really?” 

Merlin actually grinned, “I’ve seen some of her programming and it’s a dream to work with. I have also seen some of her schematics and she’s very good.”

Eggsy glanced at Merlin before movement on the screen captured the full attention of both men. Merlin quickly reached out and turned on the audio for the live feed they were watching. Devina and Roxanne were no longer sitting. Merlin split the feed so that they had a three view points, one from each side so they could see their faces and another that showed the both of them.

“Show me what you got, girlie,” they heard Devina drawl out in an incredibly condescending manner, he wasn’t sure if it was and accent or just emotion, but something about it was more crude than he’d heard from her before. “You know better’n me, show me.”

Roxanne was looking at Devina in shock and wasn’t prepared for it when Devina closed into her personal space and they could see that Devina was speaking to Roxanne, but they couldn’t hear it. Roxanne’s body language abruptly was furious and she tried to shove Devina back, lost to her anger.

They heard Devina laugh as they watched her use her body to throw Roxanne away from her. 

“You got some nerve, don’t ya, askin’ me to show you but bein’ too proud to learn,” she said as she faced Roxanne where she was rolling to her feet. “Show me why ya don’t need to.”

Her voice lowered to a register they couldn’t hear, again, and Roxanne drew the knives that they knew Devina had given to her to get used to wearing them, under instruction to _only_ wear them, not even to draw them while she had them on.

Before either of the knives had cleared their sheaths, Devina was in her face, and slapped her hand down to shove the knife on Roxanne’s leg back into it’s sheath. Her other hand moved to grip the wrist that hadn’t even pulled the knife halfway from her back down and away from Roxanne’s body. The knife fell to the floor and Devina didn’t stop or let go of Roxanne. She knocked Roxanne’s hand away from the sheath on her leg while she kicked the knife on the floor away. 

Devina pulled the wrist she was still holding downward and brought her knee up into Roxanne’s abdomen, hard. They heard Roxanne’s breath whoosh out before started to curl up while she gasped for breath. Devina just pushed her down so that she hit the mat with a muffled “thud.” Roxanne stayed curled around herself and Devina stood over her for a moment with a completely blank face.

“I don’t teach arrogant, disrespectful little shits,” she said, her perfect Received Pronunciation back, as she crouched down and grabbed Roxanne’s jaw and turned her face to look at her. “However, I imagine that you did learn something, yes?”

Devina stood and walked across the mat to gather her things. Once she had them stored in her rucksack, she looked back at Roxanne where she was still lying on the ground. Devina’s voice had been frigid as she addressed the lump on the floor, and so the warmth she displayed when she looked up at one of the cameras and said, “Merlin, I’m coming to you,” was startling.

Eggsy and Merlin just looked at each other for a moment before they went back to the screen. Merlin reached out to switch the feeds off when they saw Roxanne sit up and fold over he knees, crying. 

Eggsy sighed, “There is a part of me that wants to go to her, but god damn, I bet she deserved it. That, and she’d probably try to kick my ass for having seen it.”

“What do you mean she deserved it?” Merlin, of course, focused on the only relevant point.

Eggsy leaned back and looked at Merlin and held his eyes, “Roxy told me once that she thought Devina would be able to beat most of us in a fight. Just something she felt the first time they met. We both know that Devina told her to only wear those knives, not draw them, and we both know that she’s been doing just that. She asked Devina to teach her, then immediately did exactly what she was specifically told not to do. You also said she was skeptical about whatever they were doing, today. What would you have done?”

Merlin quirked a brow at the door where there was a sharp knock and Devina stepped into the control center, “I take your point,” he murmured to Eggsy before he caught Devina’s attention.

She smiled at them as she walked over, “Hello, Merlin, Eggsy,” she nodded at them.

Eggsy grinned at her. It was the first time he’d seen her since the night they’d gone to rescue her friend, “Hey, Devi.”

“Hello, Devina,” Merlin smiled at her, “will she be alright?”

“Yeah,” she said, “she’s a smart girl, she’ll work it out. She can have my number when she’s ready, alright?”

Merlin nodded his agreement, “Was there anything else you needed?”

She grinned, “Yes, actually, there is. Do you have some time this weekend? I’d like to finish that project we were working on and I have some other things I wanted to show you.”

“Tomorrow evening?” Merlin asked, “I’ll have most of Saturday free, as well, barring emergencies, if we need more time.”

“Sounds good,” she said, “I’ll drive out, just in case.”

Merlin chuckled, “Considering last time, aye, the dorms are available.”

“Thanks, Merlin,” she said before she turned to Eggsy, “And what are you doing?”

“Nothing much, just catching up with Merlin,” he said as he stretched his legs out and crossed them at the ankle.

“Good, you can run the obstacle course I’ve heard about with me. I need to burn off some energy,” she said with a sly grin.

He smiled as he got up to join her. He was happy enough with the request, he did love to watch her run.

}*{

“What did you say to Roxy?”

Devina looked up from where she was stretching to see Eggsy doing the same, looking at her with curiosity. They had run a lap around the course to warm up and were stretching out before they ran the actual course.

“That is something you will only find out if she chooses to tell you,” she said, smiling at him. 

If Roxanne wanted to talk to someone about Devina’s method, she was welcome to do so. Devina didn’t feel the need to defend it, and she wouldn’t share Roxanne’s weaknesses. If people wanted to exploit them, they would have to find them on their own. 

Devina wasn’t stupid, she’d known that Roxanne would resist her. She was a product of her upbringing, after all. She’d given her the knives and an impossible instruction for someone so sure of her abilities. Then, she’d asked Roxanne to work with juggling clubs and poi without an explanation. She had a perfectly good reason, of course, but Roxanne hadn’t asked her what it was, instead she’d protested at “playing instead of training.” 

It was unfortunate for Roxanne and lovely for Devina that Roxanne was rife with insecurities. Nothing that was terribly apparent, but for Devina, they shone like a beacon. She’d, of course, played on them. She did love to make people loose their tempers. It was great for teaching a lesson about control.

Devina had her own temper that burned with more heat than a summer in Phoenix. Her Shihan had let it burn brightly, once, before he’d taught her to temper and control it. She’d learned that rigid control let to it eventually snapping, so she kept if flexible and learned to think around her anger and dampen it until it was a cold thing that she could use to sharpen her abilities. Her temper had become nothing more than another tool in her arsenal.

She shook off the thoughts about Roxanne, the whole point of running the course was to take the edge off. She was always ready for a fight, after all, but physical exertion was a great way to tamp the desire down. 

Fighting and fucking, the things that made her world go ‘round.

She laid back on the ground from where she’d been stretching her hamstrings and stretched her body out in a full extension before she contracted and pushed herself up into a bridge. She then walked her body over backward, sprang into a back flip-flop before launching and landing a back tuck with a stepped out landing.

“You competed at a low level?” Eggsy asked her and she looked over at him and grinned.

“Yeah,” she said as she walked over to the starting mark. “That doesn’t mean I didn’t keep up the acrobatics. They do come in handy now and then.”

Eggsy just hummed at her, obviously skeptical of her explanation. It was the truth, though. She absolutely had only compete at a low level. That didn’t mean that further training hadn’t happened. She was happy that she’d not kept up with it. The stunted puberty of an elite gymnast would not have served her well. Instead, she was an elite killer. 

She liked that better, anyway.

“You ready to show me this course?” she asked Eggsy as they stood at the line.

“Yeah, you ready?” Eggsy asked her with an excited grin.

“Call it.”

}*{

Merlin watched as Devina and Eggsy ran the obstacle course. They were on their third run and while Devina seemed to be pleased as could be to launch herself off of things, Eggsy seemed to be getting winded. He was chuckling to himself, that woman could run circles around the youngest and most energetic of them, it seemed.

He’d split his screen when Devina and Eggsy had exited his control center and watched as they’d warmed up and stretched out. On the other screen, he’d watched Roxy regain her composure and eventually leave the gymnasium to get cleaned up. She’d gone home after a shower and a change of clothing. He had seen nothing but determination on her face and knew that Devina’s assessment had been correct. She was a tough girl and would figure it out.

Merlin figured from what they knew about Devina that her own training had been far more harsh then Kingsman training. While Kingsman was tough, they were not in the habit of putting their trainees into real danger so long as it could be prevented. Don’t risk a life unless it is to save another and all that.

Sukoshi Yami was, for all intents and purposes, a ninja. Which mean that she’d been trained by one, and for all they were incredibly secret, their methods had been noted in history. Her progress would have been judged on a survival basis. He imagined that too much injury (or her death) would have been frowned upon by her grandmother, but that didn’t mean that her trainers had been lenient. 

He decided to leave it alone. Roxanne had asked Devina to train her and if she wanted to learn from Devina, she’d have to do it Devina’s way.

He sat back and watched the light competition happening between Devina and Eggsy as they ran the course until one of his handlers gained his attention and asked for help on a mission that was running. 

He closed out the surveillance windows and went to work.

He’d see Devina tomorrow and maybe he’d learn more about her. He grinned quietly to himself. Harry would be jealous. He’d not spent time with her, on his own, and desperately wanted to, even if he didn’t know why.

Merlin supposed that Harry would have to work it out for himself how he was going to gain her attention. She had given him an opening, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is welcome and encouraged.


	17. Coming clean

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Devina and James enjoy a date night.

James looked up at the door at the sound of a firm knock. 

“Are you expecting someone?” he called to Devina in the kitchen. 

He’d just returned from a long running mission and they’d decided on a night in and she had insisted on cooking. He wasn’t about to complain, she was an amazing cook. He poked his head around the door to see what she was doing, and smiled at the sight of her chopping onions at the kitchen island.

“No, I’m not,” she said and looked up at him to smile. “Would you mind seeing who it is? Tristan or Alec would have let us know they were coming.”

“And it would be something dire,” he chuckled at the thought, “I’ll go see.”

He took a couple steps before toward her and leaned to kiss the side of her neck before he headed to the front door. When he pulled it open, he found a young man on the other side who looked rather surprised to see James. He was about Devina’s height, with dark blond hair and blue-green eyes. He was fit, dressed in designer jeans and a zipped up hooded sweater over some rather elaborate trainers. He had a small bag slung over a shoulder.

“Can I help you?” James asked with a faint smile. He knew how to be as pleasantly blank as the next spy.

The face in front of him broke into a open, charming smile. James hid his amusement as he watched the young man compose himself; he was pretty, he’d definitely give him that.

“I’m looking for Devina Fredericks. This is her place, yeah?” he asked with a broad smile. James felt his eyebrow quirk upward. 

“It is. Is she expecting you?” he asked in return as he leaned against the door frame of Devina’s new flat.

“Nah, I was just returning some things to her. She here?”

James didn’t move from the doorway or take his eyes off the intruder as he turned his head slightly and called, “Devi, it’s for you.”

He could hear her laugh as she came out of the kitchen wiping her hands on a towel before she draped it over he shoulder and approached the door.

“Of course it’s for me, it’s my house,” she said all signs of good humor in place even as she looked to see who was at the door, “Ah, Eggsy, what can I do for you?”

“I wanted to return these before I take off in the morning. Work and all,” Eggsy replied as he dropped the bag from his shoulder.

When Devina’s posture remains as open as it ever is, James pushed himself away from the door frame and ran his hand across Devina’s lower back before he wandered off to the living room, idly keeping track of their conversation. 

He listened as Devina led Eggsy into the kitchen so that she could continue cooking and he heard the youngster apologize for his shit timing. He smiled to himself as he heard Devina agree that it was and he assumed that she’d gotten dinner to a place where it could wait a bit and the two of them joined him in the living room.

“James,” she said as she walked in with Eggsy trailing behind her, “this is Gary Unwin. He helped me out the other night with the John situation. Eggsy, this is James Bond.”

Eggsy was grinning at him, “The one who ain’t a boyfriend?”

James smiled in return and shook his hand, “I am sure that neither of us would refer to the other in such a juvenile manner, so yes. Pleasure. One of the Kingsman agents, yes?”

Devina ignored them as she opened her weapons cache with Eggsy’s bag in hand. She started to unload it and inspect the weapons before putting them away. James and Eggsy were just eying each other, not giving anything away.

Eventually, Eggsy nodded, “I am, and you’re 007. Heard of you, mate, you’re aces at the business.”

“Thank you. I can’t say that you’ve been terrible at it, either. Saving the world and all. I have to say, I’ve never seen so many headless people in one spot,” James decided that some charm couldn’t hurt. He suspected that Devina hadn’t told them a thing about how they’d been found out, but he had always bent the rules as he saw fit.

Eggsy’s eyes widened just a fraction, he had good control, but it was enough for James, “You saw it, then?”

“We were right behind you. Who did you think initiated the clean up and release of the captives?” James asked him, smiling fully for the first time. “Devina put a bullet in Valentine’s brain, though he was dead, before she dismantled his system.”

Behind him, he heard Devina sigh as she closed the weapons cache. She joined the two just as Eggsy blinked his astonishment back.

“You didn’t tell us you were there,” Eggsy directed at her, borderline accusatory.

“Eggsy, I didn’t tell any of you a damn thing about it. James follows his own rules, and none of you asked me about it,” her voice was firm, “and now is not the time,” she reminded him as she took his arm and guided him to the door. 

James called after them, “It was nice to meet you, Galahad.”

He heard the response, “You also, 007.”

He was chuckling as he heard Devina got Eggsy’s number and told him that she’d text him and he could call when he got back. He heard her shut the door and go back to the kitchen. He decided to join her.

“So, a Kingsman helped you get John?” he asked her.

“Yeah, I was out to dinner with Arthur, Merlin and Eggsy when the call came in. I took Eggsy on a whim,” she said while she finished checking on the food she was making.

“That’s some whim. Was he helpful?” James was curious. She generally didn’t involve outsiders.

She hummed in consideration before she said, “Tristan set him after a sniper for me, so I could take out the ground guard. He also managed to keep someone alive for Mycroft to question.”

“Very helpful, then,” he grinned. “What is your interest in him?”

She looked up at him then and he could see her deciding to tell him or not before she said, “The same interest I had in you, I suppose.”

“What do you mean?” he wasn’t aware that she’d had any interest in him before he’d unintentionally tried to blow her cover. “Are they trying to coerce you into something?”

She smiled, “No, they are not. But they are trying to figure out why I approached them at all.”

“And why did you?” his curiosity was peaked. 

“Most likely a combination of Eggsy and blatant curiosity,” she said as she started to plate the simple dinner she’d made.

He moved to help her ferry items to the table that had been set earlier. He wasn’t sure how to respond. She usually kept her projects outside of MI6 very private from him and Alec, no matter how they were entwined in her and Tristan’s lives. He both wanted her to keep talking, but also didn’t want her to regret telling him, later.

“Do you want to tell me about it?” he finally asked, looking up at her.

She sat down across from him, “I think I should, yeah. There are a few things that I should talk to you about.”

He felt his eyebrow creep back up. He loved her, but she was definitely _not_ an open book to anyone but Tristan. He had no idea how this was going to go.

“Alright,” was all he said.

}*{

Devina and James ended up talking for quite some time. They talked through dinner and the cleaning of the kitchen, they talked over a drink and a smoke after. They sat comfortably in the living room with the TV on in the background playing some inane programming and still talked.

She opened with Tristan telling her that she never talked about the significant things in her life other than himself, James and Alec. About how she’d rebutted him but that Eggsy showing up at her home helped her to understand his point. Other than Tristan, who in her own words, was an interfering asshat, no one had any insight into her or her life. And how it was beginning to feel wrong that she was keeping things about her current life from the people that she cared so much about. 

James was a rather large part of her life and had been for far longer than he was aware. It was well past time for her to tell him about it.

James was surprised when she told him that he’d come to her attention the first time his file had landed on her grandmother’s desk. He didn’t even know when that was, but he’d been a field agent for MI6 for a while before he’d been promoted to a double oh. She’d been watching after him for years.

He finally understood his feeling of having seen her before when she told him that she’d known he was alive. She had found where he’d holed up after he’d been shot off that bridge and not told anyone, just watched over him until she returned to England. The morning that he’d woken up in the bar to see the news reports of MI6 being blown up had been the only time he’d woken up at the bar. She taken a lot more care of him than he’d ever known.

It gave him a pause and he took a moment to think about how, while the shards of the bullet had been left, his shoulder had never become infected and he’d always had plenty of pain killers and antibiotics on hand. He always woke up in his bed, or at least in the little dwelling that he’d called home. He didn’t always remember how he’d gotten there. 

She had only left him when her grandmother and the people who had raised her were in danger. She smiled at him and told him that she figured he’d be not too far behind before she apologized for leaving him at the bar.

He shook his head at her apology. She had nothing to be sorry for and he wondered if it would have made a difference to him at the time that there had been someone in his life that cared for him as much as she already had. He didn’t know. 

He gathered her in his arms where they sat on the couch and thanked her, quietly. She just snuggled in and told him it had been her pleasure. He had a good grasp on what had happened in her life after that. The emptiness of it before he and Alec had stumbled upon her, hidden as she was (in a coffee shop of all things), and triggered another series of dangerous events. 

So he asked the next question with just a word.

“Kingsman?”

She chuckled lightly before she talked to him about how Tristan had found Merlin’s link to Valentine’s systems and put a trace on the plane before Merlin had turned his attention to just getting out of there with his agent. She told him about some of the information they’d gathered, the kind of missions they typically worked on, the differences between the former Arthur and the current.

“They can do so many of the things we can’t. They are able to move, quickly, on any number of things that we don’t touch unless we come across it in missions and the agent decides to take care of it, themselves. Government agencies _have_ to worry about the politics of every things they do. Kingsman don’t, and so long as they remain off the radar the way that they have, they can continue to help in very needed ways. If they ever became known players in the SIS, they would be wiped out.”

“Is that why you fought so hard for them to be left alone?” James asked her.

She sighed, “You know that when I went to the states that I worked, right?”

When he acknowledged that he did, she continued, “We always took the job that _helped_. We got paid, yes, but we made very sure of what we were doing, every time. I haven’t been able to do that as much as I’d like, and I envy that Kingsman does. That they not only _can_ , but that they _do_.”

James held her tighter for a moment, “Would you leave MI6 for them?”

She hummed, “The circumstances would have to be rather extreme. I love MI6, and I am behind M, completely. And I love what I do, there. I still get my hands into the types of things I like more often than agents do.”

“Not to mention the three of us would be lost without you, there,” James said with a smile.

“Now, now, James, don’t feed me bullshit like that,” she said and laughed.

He chuckled with her and said, “We would, though. We’d get used to it, but we wouldn’t make it easy on anyone.”

“That I believe,” she smiled.

“And this Eggsy?” he turned the conversation back to her.

She stilled for a moment before she sighed, “When I got to his file, my interest was immediately engaged. When I watched all the available video, I wanted to know him.”

“In what way?” he tried to clarify her interest.

“Don’t now yet. Just like I didn’t know about you until I’d spent time with you.”

“Are you hoping for it to go the same way?” he asked and decided that since the conversation was almost over, he could start to move on. He began to trail kisses along her neck.

She tilted her head to the side and allowed him better access, “Anything is possible, but I am leaning that way, yes.”

He hummed and shifted his hands on her provocatively, determined to enjoy the place that he occupied in her life. The way that she loved him was not overt, but he felt it, deeply, and knew that even if she loved another person, she certainly wouldn’t love him any less.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is welcome and encouraged.


	18. What cover?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Devina deals with the backlash of trying to hide in plain sight.

It was over a week before Devina saw any of the Kingsman again. She’d had to cancel her weekend with Merlin, something had come up at MI6 that had needed her touch. 

004’s simple in and out recon had uncovered some unexpected information before his cover had been compromised and Devina had been sent in to eliminate the target. It wasn’t the kind of mission she was usually sent on, but she was the most qualified for an in and out killing with little preparation and on extremely short notice. It didn’t matter if it was clean or not, it just needed to be done and done quickly. 

The backlash when she returned was almost everything that she expected it to be. It seemed that this one hadn’t been kept quiet enough and all the department heads were in a tizzy that they hadn’t known they had a specialized assassin hiding out down in q-branch. They were doubly upset that she was so close to being a department head, herself.

There was discussion about making her an agent, properly. She promptly squashed that idea. She was a killer, not a spy, and she knew it. Christ, she’d had to have the usual medical and psyche evaluations upon her return and to say she was less than pleased was the most polite phrasing that could be used for her attitude about it.

When she walked into q-branch with a pleasantly blank expression on her face, the minions all pretend to be studiously working. They knew from watching her deal with the double ohs that her expression meant certain things and they were all bad. When she went straight to a work station they all relaxed minutely.

When Devina walked into q branch, she didn’t pay attention to the fact that everyone actively avoided her, it was what she wanted. She had something to do and that was on her mind. She found an empty workstation and sat, pulling up the footage around MI6 to find out how the fuck her cover _inside MI6_ had been so completely fucking blown.

Most of MI6 had no idea where the cameras were and were not. She and Tristan rather liked it that way, given that they were both control freaks and absolutely loved having more information than anyone else did. So, it stood to reason that 004 had no idea that he’d been on camera in the infirmary; one of the few places that had audio capability. The decision for that had been easy. The infirmary was full of people on far too many drugs being debriefed while under the influence.

And, apparently, far too many things were said in front of those same people.

Her face was stony when she pulled out some headphones and plugged them into the computer to listen to 004’s debrief with M and Tanner. It had been nothing, really, just a moment of indiscretion between M and Tanner.

On the way out the door, M had turned slightly to Tanner and said, “Send D.”

Devina could see the way 004’s eyes had sharpened, even through the haze of morphine in his system. Unfortunately, that same haze of morphine had led to some unguarded conversations with other who came to see the convalescing agent.

_God damn it_ , she thought to herself, _I cannot fucking believe this._

She turned of the feeds and erased them and the history from the computer she was on. She’d just pulled the headphones off when someone encroached on her space, quickly. 

All she knew was that it wasn’t any of the techs (the were never that disrespectful to either her or Q) or Q. It also wasn’t James or Alec; they had learned early that it was a terrible idea to try and startle her. That meant that it was no one that she cared whether or not she hurt, so she allowed her reaction to be genuine.

She spun her chair toward the body coming at her and propelled herself under the arm reaching for her and caught the wrist on the way by. She turned to face the back of the man that had come upon her. She used the grip she had on his wrist to change her momentum and twist the arm and kicked the feet in front of her apart. She used her leverage on his arm and shoved her other hand into the back of the neck in front of her and shove his face down onto the desk, where the keyboard happened to be.

When she’d stopped moving, she had a double oh agent, face down on the desk, off balance and gathering himself to retaliate.

She kept her sigh internal and made sure her voice carried when she spoke, “Yes, 009, because you don’t already try my patience.”

He grunted at her and she felt him get ready to move again and she jammed her thumb where it was on his neck into his jugular vein just below his ear before she applied the leverage she had on his arm to keep him leaning against the table. When she swiftly kicked his right knee out, he stupidly tried to keep his footing, rather than go down to loosen her grip.

She decided that a well placed knee to his transverse abdominals wouldn’t be adverse and so she deprived him of more of his breath by kneeing him in the side. She kept doing it until he collapsed in a heap below the desk and she withdrew her hands from him and let him fall.

She made a sound of disgust and walked to Tristan’s office. He was, of course, in. He looked up at her brisk knock and gave her an evil grin. 

“009?” he asked.

“On the floor. Christ, I hate this part,” she said as she slumped into one of the guest chairs in his office.

“Yet you kind of love it,” he rolled his eyes at her.

“I would like it better if I could actually hurt them,” she said firmly.

He chuckled, “They will eventually stop testing you.”

“Yeah,” she drawled, “but what idiocy do I have to put up with in the mean time?”

“Well,” he remarked cheerfully, “only six more to go.”

“Fuck that,” she said, knowing full well that he was correct. “What’s the collateral damage?”

He hummed as he pulled up an infographic that he’d made for her, “The most demands have been for access to mission files. The next has been for weapons evaluation scores. Oh, and a couple for combat assessments.”

“What had M’s response been?” she asked, perking up a bit.

Tristan pulled up a different infographic and turned it in her direction. She laughed as she absorbed the information. Her number one response had been an approximation of “fuck off.” M had also drafted a memo to all the double oh agents that said Devina had been working for MI6 eleven years and they could stuff it if they thought that MI6 would rethink it now that people actually knew about it and that, possibly, they should all be retrained if they hadn’t known prior to Devina being dispatched to correct 004’s cock-up. Well, maybe M hadn’t used exactly that language, but that was the gist of it.

“God, I almost like her as much as grandmother in this position,” Devina grinned.

“You’ve known M a long time, haven’t you?” Tristan asked.

“Yes, I have. She got me started on maths when I was five or six. She is one of the few people who knows how good I am with computers,” she told him. “She and I have been over the basics of my training and what I did for MI6 prior to working here in q branch.”

“That’s good. So she knows better than anyone that you are capable. She won’t doubt you,” he reaffirmed to himself.

Devina grinned, “No, she won’t.”

}*{

To say that Devina was exasperated when she walked up the steps to Kingsman would be a vast understatement. She’d had to shake the tail she’d gained before she’d even left MI6.

She still smiled cheerfully as she greeted Andrew and they exchanged pleasantries. 

“Is Harry available?” she asked after a bit.

Andrew grinned, “Yes, he’s up in his office. I am sure that he will be pleased to see you. Go on up.”

Devina shrugged before she thanked him and made her way upstairs. Apparently, they were slowly doing away with formalities. She knocked on Harry’s door and waited for his call before she entered.

He looked surprised to see her before he indicated that she sit down in one of his guest chairs. She closed the door behind her before she strode forward and slumped into her favored chair. She tilted her head back and closed her eyes for a minute and just decided not to think about why she was there, for a change, and why she wanted _Harry_.

“Devina, are you alright?” she heard Harry ask, concerned.

She took a breath before she started speaking.

“You know,” she said as she sat up to look at Harry, “we all thought that I would be the next 007.”

Harry blinked at her before he gave a small smile of encouragement. She didn’t want to fight her urge to talk about this. Sometimes, you had to know when to go with your instincts and this was one of those times. 

“When I first came to London, I didn’t talk for a long time. I just trailed around MI6 with a giant shadow watching over me. That was Mitsuo; he was 007 at the time. He never spoke to me, just watched what I was doing. I thought that he’d been assigned to do so when he wasn’t on missions.

“Grandmother never thought to wonder what I did with my time. I think she just wasn’t used to having a child around, and she was grieving, as well, for my parents, while trying to manage MI6,” she smiled sadly.

“What happened to your parents?” Harry asked.

“As far as I know, they and my brother were killed by enemies of MI6. I think I was kept for leverage. 007 was dispatched to get me. I am not sure who it was, I don’t know if anyone ever knew, but no one on-site survived Mitsuo.”

Harry sat back and kept his face neutral as she related the story unemotionally. His lack of reaction kept her going.

“He didn’t talk to me until it was decided that I had to go to school,” she grinned at the memory. “I had only been talking for a few days when I argued the merits with grandmother, and she told me later that I almost won.

“He met with her and let her know what I had been up to, in the meantime. How I had managed to infiltrate every department and they were all teaching me something. I’d been sitting in on all manner of combat training and I was in q branch and what became TSS a great deal of the time,” thinking about what she’d been a part of made her smile. MI6 had helped her and, in turn, she helped MI6.

“I didn’t know at the time that the in his year observing me, he’d decided that I would be his student. His protege, if you will. He’d been looking for a likely candidate for some time. So, he came to me and told me what he wanted and what he expected of me,” she made a face. “He is probably the only reason that I didn’t fight more than I did and why I bothered to learn to socialize with my ‘peers.’”

Harry chucked at the sneer in her voice, “I can see how you wouldn’t have wanted to, given your experiences.”

“Yeah, I was a right brat and suppose I still am, in some ways,” she said with a smile, “it was a lesson, though. We are different, but definitely not better than they are. It could be argued that we are far worse.”

Harry just nodded in agreement.

“So, anyway, he spoke to grandmother and he was assigned to me long term. She wanted to make sure I was learning what I needed to and that I kept out of trouble. She didn’t know about exactly what _else_ I was being taught by him until I was fourteen and she had to come pick me up from the MET,” she sighed. “It was the first time she was ‘M’ when she talked to me, in that police station.”

Harry frowned and opened his mouth to ask, but she beat him to it, “I had killed two men in a tube station who tried to kidnap me.”

She watched, amused, as Harry’s eyebrows crept up his forehead, “When you were fourteen?”

She kept her smile small and said, “It wasn’t the first time I’d killed anyone, Harry, just the first time it couldn’t be hidden.”

“Really?” he asked, “That’s, well, I’m not sure what that is,” he admit.

“It’s disturbing, is what it is,” she chuckled before she scowled, “it’s why I am not going to be a damn agent now. I’m not a spy, that ship sailed long ago.”

Harry’s face grew wary and he asked, “What happened?”

She groaned and rubbed her hands over her face in frustration, “My cover at MI6 was blown. By two fucking words and an agent on morphine.”

“What?” Harry asked again, surprised that she had actually said MI6 rather than Universal Exports. “You had a cover _inside_ MI6?”

She lowered her hands, propped her elbows on her knees and told him about her week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is welcome and encouraged.


	19. Decompression

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Devina gets to let off some steam and get her head back in the game. Harry and Merlin learn a bit more about her.

“Shit, shit, shit, sorry. Fuck, Harry, I’m sorry.”

Harry blinked up at Devina from the mat where he was lying flat on his back. They had made their way to the gym at HQ from the shop after she’d told him about the mission that she’d been sent on and the backlash she’d faced when she arrived back. He found out that she’d had advanced warning, but was still less than pleased by the speculation she faced and the hoops she’d had to jump through. "Useless protocols," she’d called them.

As someone who’d taken over as the head of a spy agency, he tried to think about how he would handle it if he were in the same situation as this new “M.” He found that he wouldn’t be surprised if the information had been deliberately let slip, an unconscious decision. He was proud of Devina and what she’d accomplished, and he barely knew her. He could only imagine what someone who’d had, no matter how small, a part in raising her would feel about how she’d turned out.

After all, she was far more stable than anyone had a right to expect. She was brilliant, well mannered, and was incredibly good at the things she did. Well, except for art (which she freely admit that she was terrible at). She’d been trained from her youth to be a field agent and it seemed a shame that she wasn’t. 

Devina might think that she was only good for killing, but she proved everyday that she offered much more than that to MI6. She was an analyst, a handler, a computer prodigy and a genius at building technology for use by the agency itself as well as the agents. 

It seemed to him that what she didn’t like was the oversight. She liked being anonymous and having the freedom that she did. Being an agent meant doing less the way she wanted and more worrying about how others would view her actions. And having to justify those actions in detailed reports.

“Devina,” he said, breaking into her rambling apologies.

“Yes, Harry?” she said after she paused.

“I’m fine.

“Ok,” she said before she settled down on the mat next to him.

He sat up so that they were facing each other and smiled. They had been doing Tai Chi, again and, not surprisingly, she’d been in an aggressive mood. When they had started into throws, she’d been a little overzealous, ending up with him flat out on the mat. He looked at her, she had calmed down considerably from the state that she’d been in when she first arrived in his office. All for the better.

“Have you thought about how you are going to handle this?” he asked her.

“Eh, the way I always have, I supposed. Hell, one of them was tailing me before I even left the home office. But, I know how to evade, it’s second nature,” she told him before musing, “I’m going to have to get another flat.”

“What about in the office?”

She grinned, “M isn’t going to mind if I kick their asses, as long as I don’t break them. I wouldn’t mind doing a training exhibition. I know what they teach agents, and Mitsuo made sure that I knew how to counter all of it,” she winked at him and continued, “and I kept up with the newer methods. I am also pretty decent with multiple attackers.”

He let out a snort before he could contain it, “Decent? That means you would decimate them, doesn’t it?”

“Not necessarily,” she said seriously. “Every single fight, training or not, is the one that you could loose.”

He looked at her seriously with his head cocked to the side. She seemed to really mean that. She anticipated his question, again.

“I have seen some fucked up shit in fights, Harry. Some wickedly stupid accidents that lead to loosing or death. Not to mention how terribly the over confident can fail. It’s one of the reasons that I excel as an assassin. I’m not a fighter.”

“Right,” he said, nonplussed, “but you do fight.”

She looked at him, “I _can_ fight, but it’s not what I _do_.”

He nodded, finally understanding the distinction. Maybe she was right.

}*{

Because it had been the first time Devina had arrived at the shop unannounced since her initial visit, Andrew had notified Merlin that she’d arrived. He had, in a fit of worry (about her or Harry, he wasn’t sure), activated Harry’s glasses remotely and been privy to the conversation she’d had with him. 

He sighed, heavily. He wondered what she would do. He worked too closely with the egos of agents to think they wouldn’t try to make her either pay or prove herself capable in the field. It didn’t matter that she’d been doing it for years, they would feel slighted that she’d been operating among them and hadn’t known. The idea that she was better at something than all of them were would not sit well.

He’d followed Harry and Devina’s progress to HQ and watched them spar before their conversation started up again. When they left for the locker rooms, he closed out his windows and sighed again.

He understood what she meant, that she wasn’t a fighter. Spies didn’t kill people nearly as often as movies would like everyone to believe. The whole point of being a spy, after all, was to work under the radar and not be noticed. If you got into fights or killed a lot of people, you were certainly noticed. That was bad business for a spy. Not that they wouldn’t and didn’t do either, but it was not optimal, at all.

Devina was an assassin. Her abilities were all about killing people. For her, everything was about finding the opportunity to end a life. Her hand to hand skills, her knife skills, her skills with guns, everything. If people lived through what she did to them, she was a bad assassin. 

And she was good at it. Even the little that he’d seen proved her ability. Every strike she’d made against Geraint with her prop knives, other than breaking his wrist, were killing blows. With a real knife, she would have taken out his lungs, severed his internal iliac artery and his femoral artery. Even the knife hilt to the back of his skull could have been a killing blow.

Not to mention how quickly she’d dispatched the other two idiots that had gone after her. She’d pulled the blows, but the fact that the hits had put the men down was quite telling.

He was startled out of is thoughts by a brief knock the preceded Devina into the room. She took one look at him and grinned.

“Don’t worry, Merlin, I’ve got it covered,” she said. “006 and 007 won’t come at me, at least, I measured them out ages ago, and they are actually acquainted with me on a personal level.”

She strolled in and gestured at a chair and he nodded. She sat and continued, “009 went down, today. Hopefully, they will only need the one lesson, but who knows. You heard what I said, I imagine. As long as I don’t break them, M will be fine with whatever happens.”

“You seem to be in much better spirits than when you arrived,” Merlin commented, smiling at her.

“Of course, I just needed to talk about it. Tristan will listen, but he won’t make the same connections, yeah?” She replied.

“Talk about it and beat up Harry?” he teased.

“Oi, I didn’t beat him up. He said that he is fine,” she poked him playfully.

Merlin chuckled until she asked, “Has anyone else seen the feed?”

He shook his head, “No.”

“Can you make sure no one does? Now is not the time for me to seem indiscreet.”

He smiled, “I agree, which is why it has already been deleted from the servers.”

“Thanks, Merlin,” she grinned. “Would you mind if I worked on that project for a bit?”

Merlin indicated a negative, “That shouldn’t be a problem.”

She stood, “Excellent, stop by later, I have a couple other things to show you.”

Merlin waved her out the door and went back to his analyst duties. God, it was tedious. At least he didn’t have to pick the information out, that was the job of others. He just had to put it together in a way that made sense for everyone else. He shook it off and got down to it. The sooner he got this done, the sooner he could see what Devina was up to and what she wanted to show him.

}*{

Devina was ensconced in the lab when Merlin found her. He saw her eyes flick at him when the door opened, but she didn’t fully look up from where she had her head bent over what looked like the last of her garrote rings that she was threading wire to. 

She had earbuds in that were plugged into her laptop where it was open next to her. He got a good look at the playlist when he sat down next to her after he greeted the technicians that were at work in the room. She was listening to Anthrax. Today, there was no music playing in the room, but there was a movie with sound on the projection screen. He started at it for a moment before he recognized that it was a Terminator movie.

When he looked back at Devina, she had finished winding the wire and was testing the clasp and release on the ring. She looked up at him and grinned while she slipped it on her thumb. He smiled at her when she pulled her earbuds out.

“Ta, Merlin,” she said, “I think this is going to work great.”

“Excellent, I am glad that it works,” he said as he watched her turn off her playlist and put her earbuds away. “Did you have something else that you wanted to work on?”

“No, but I did want to show you something,” she was pulling up files as she spoke, “you were wondering how I was talking to Tristan that night, right?”

“I had wondered,” he agreed, “but I wasn’t sure you would tell me.”

She slid the laptop toward him and he found himself looking at a detailed set of plans for an ear piece and microphone. His brows rose and he cast a glance at her before doing a double take and just staring at her.

She had stuck her tongue out and was fiddling with the top and bottom. He could do nothing but watch as she pulled her hands away and and asked him if he had a handkerchief. 

He produced one and put it on the table where she gestured and she placed bits of metal and plastic on the cloth. He looked back at her and she pulled something out of her pocket before she reached up to her left ear and removed something before that was also placed on the handkerchief on the table.

“That’s it,” she said.

He looked from the bits on the table to the plans on her laptop and started to chuckle, “Is there an off switch?”

She smiled, “Not on my end, no. But these aren’t MI6 issued, they are used only by Tristan and myself.”

“So he is in constant contact with you?” he was incredulous, she guarded her privacy, rabidly.

“No, but he can be.” She hesitated for a moment before she explained, “I went missing for two weeks at university. Since then, he is uncomfortable if we aren’t in contact or he doesn’t have eyes on me. I’ve grown so used to it that the years we didn’t do it were hell on both of us.”

Merlin hummed as he considered how close the two of them must be.

“So, he really is your partner. No secrets?”

“From him, no,” she smiled. “It’s undetectable unless you know that you are looking for it. We came up with this version not too long ago. Getting used to the piercing was interesting, but I don’t even notice it, anymore.”

“We didn’t notice it, either,” he commented wryly, “usually, you notice that kind of piercing.”

“Hang on,” she said before she picked the pieces back up and stuck her tongue back out to put it back in. When she was done, she left her tongue out and he could barely see where she’d put the piece in. It almost matched the color of her flesh, perfectly, and lay flat against the muscle. She flipped her tongue up and he could see it from the bottom. It was just a small, metal ball, like most of the tongue jewelry he’d seen.

“I see,” he said as he watched her pick up the ear piece with a slim tool and put it back in her ear. She winced as she did so and gave him an apologetic look before she was suddenly speaking.

“Sorry. Yeah, I know I should have told you. I was…well fuck, Tris, I didn’t know that. Shit, yeah, _alright_ , now I do. Yes, love, it won’t happen again. Yeah, I’ll be there late. Ok.”

Merlin was laughing by the time she was done. He could only imagine what had just happened, but he knew how he reacted when he lost contact with his agents, and he just _knew_ she’d meant it when she said that she and Tristan had the need for constant contact.

He laughed harder at the terribly inappropriate thought he had about her sexual encounters with another in her ear. He abruptly stopped laughing and flushed when the next thought that followed was whether or not they liked it that way.

She let out an amused sound where she sat, “I can probably guess what that was about. And yes,” her eyes glinted wickedly at him, “sometimes we do.”

His flush deepened and it was her turn to laugh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is welcome and encouraged.


	20. Reiteration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Devina begins to let the agents know why she should be left alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, sorry, sorry, I forgot to post a whole chapter. So, yeah, this is the correct chapter 20.

When Devina disappeared for 72 hours, no one at MI6 was terribly concerned, if only because Q wasn’t bothered by it. He did have a short meeting with M in which he told her exactly what he thought of her thoughtless slip in front of a drugged double oh agent. The backlash was something they all had to deal with, and M would allow Devina to do so as she saw fit.

He did reassure her that Devina would do her best to not kill any of the idiot agents that tested her.

The regular field agents calmed down, almost immediately, after 006 and 007 had taken it upon themselves to remind them that fucking with one of their Quartermasters was a terrible idea, especially when _all_ of the agents depended on them the way that they did. 

No one bothered to try and stop the rest of the double oh agents. They were too used to being a force on their own to listen to the advice that anyone might try to give them. They felt slighted and there would be reprisals for it. 

What they didn’t know would hurt them. 

Devina had retreated to her workshop. Alec and James took turns making sure that she had food and was at least sleeping on the cot she had tucked into the corner. Tristan checked in on her using the cameras around the shop and left her to her work. They knew what she was doing and wholly approved. 

Devina had made replicas of most of her weapons and refit sheathes for them. The only thing she returned with that were actually edged weapons was her boot knife and the push dagger that she carried on the back of her belt. She remade the weapons with carefully rounded edges. Her two main knives and several throwing implements were fitted into sheathes with dye packs which would coat the edges when drawn.

She also began to carry a gun that had been re-fitted to fire paint balls that also held dye that would stain the skin for _days_. She was determined to not kill anyone, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t make it hurt, ruin their suits, or humiliate them in the process.

Her thoughts were, of course, running toward humiliation. 

She finally spoke to Merlin to see if Kingsman had a fast acting sedative that she could carry about in small, hypodermic needles. He was amused by her idea, once she’d explained and had even helped her design and make the implements that she would need. He had experience, after all, with amnesia darts. He also might have been flattered that she asked him rather than just take the information from the Kingsman.

He was pleased that she’d invited him to her shop, so for a change they met outside Kingsman and he loved that it was a shop and not a lab. It was well set up and had everything he could hope for to fabricate, even smaller items, but they would need a lab for micro fabrication. He wanted to go back, soon.

Harry, on the other hand, was not amused. At least, not until they received the first USB stick.  
Harry’s brow rose when Andrew presented him with a violet colored box, complete with a floppy black bow. 

“From Miss Fredericks, sir.”

Harry set it down on his desk and dismissed Andrew. He had no doubt that the man was curious, but that didn’t matter. Harry was dying to know what was in the box. He tapped on his glasses to alert Merlin and pulled the bow off the box.

“What have you got there, Harry? And why is it purple?” Merlin voice came through his glasses.

“Something from Devina, I thought you’d want to see it.” 

“Open it, Harry, let’s see what it is,” Merlin sounded eager. 

Harry lifted the lid off the box and started to pull out tissue paper. He finally reached a sleek little USB stick on top of a piece of light gray card stock. He pulled out the stick and set it aside before pulling out the card. On one side was a few lines of what, to Harry, looked like gibberish neatly printed out in black ink. 

“That’s a line of code, I think I’ll need to take a look at that memory stick,” Merlin commented, “anything else?”

Harry looked in the box for anything else before he sat back and flipped the card over and noticed there was more writing, this time in script.

_For the viewing pleasure of Arthur and Merlin._   
_~Devina Fredericks_   
_P.S. If anyone else sees this, it should be Galahad, otherwise the usual rules apply.~D_

“Well, that’s interesting,” Harry said, “Is Eggsy about?”

“He’s here at HQ, in the gym. Do you want to come here, or shall I collect him and come there?” Merlin asked.

“Collect him and come here. I have the good whiskey,” Harry recommended.

“We’ll be there as soon as he cleans up,” Merlin disconnected.

}*{

Eggsy looked up from his stretch when Merlin came into the smaller gym where Eggsy had been working out. 

“Hey, Merlin, you need me for something?” he asked.

“Nothing terribly urgent, but Harry will be chomping at the bit,” Merlin chuckled.

Eggsy got his legs under him and stood facing the other man with his head cocked curiously, “What’s going on?”

“Harry received a gift from Devina. It included a USB stick, a line of code and a request that you be included at our discretion,” Merlin ticked off.

“Me?” Eggsy asked, “why me?”

“I assume because she trusts that you can keep your mouth shut. This is the first video she’s allowed us. I have a feeling I know what it is, and you’ll want to see,” Merlin explained with a smile.

“Alright, can I clean up?”

“Of course. I have a feeling Harry won’t wait for us, but he won’t get anywhere,” Merlin chuckled fondly and gestured toward the door.

Eggsy obediently trotted out the door and made his way to the locker rooms. He hit the showers and scrubbed up relatively quickly, thinking all the while about why Devina might be sending them a video. Did she need help with something? Was she in trouble?

It wasn’t long before he was back out in the hallway and walking with Merlin to the bullet train.

“So, why is Devina sending us memory sticks?” Eggsy decided to voice his concerns. “She need help?”

“Have you talked to her lately?” Merlin asked.

“Nah, bruv, just got back, didn’t I?” Eggsy said. “Haven’t seen her since I returned her equipment. Did I tell you I met 007?”

Merlin laughed, “Interrupted them, did you?”

“Just making dinner. Definitely her boyfriend, yeah?” Eggsy couldn’t help sounding a bit disgruntled. He’d been trying not to think about it.

Merlin stopped him with a hand on the shoulder and he turned to look at the older man with a question on his face.

“Eggsy, you know that she’s polyamorous, don’t you?” Merlin asked him.

“No,” he said slowly, “no, I don’t. She tell you that?”

“Yes,” Merlin told him, gauging his reaction.

“Thought she was demisexual,” Eggsy said narrowing his eyes at Merlin before he turned and started walking, again.

“The two needn’t be mutually exclusive, you know?” Merlin remarked, “It would just mean that her emotional connections to them are very strong.”

Eggsy just made a noise that could have been agreeable but was really just a signal that he didn’t want to talk about it anymore. He did find his step a little lighter, however, and tried to keep a smile from playing about his lips as he considered the additional information.

Once they were on the train he finally asked again, “So, what’s going on with her that she’s sending us videos?”

Merlin gave him a rundown of the events, starting with Devina coming by unannounced an ending with Merlin’s visit to her shop. He received few details about the conversations they’d had, just her general plans to not actually kill the double ohs, but to make sure they remembered that she wasn’t to be trifled with.

Eggsy knew that Merlin was leaving information out and he also knew that if Devina was Sukoshi Yami, she’d been an assassin longer than eleven years. Which meant that she hadn’t always worked for MI6 in that capacity. He wondered if the double oh agents pestering her had any idea that she’d been at it far longer than they had.

When they reached Harry’s office, he could see from Harry’s frustrated face that Merlin had been correct. He hadn’t waited for them, and neither had he gotten very far. Eggsy chuckled as Harry tried to school his features.

“Merlin,” he said, “I can’t even access the drive.” He turned his laptop around to face them as he spoke. 

There was a slim USB stick in the port and Merlin strode forward and picked up a piece of gray paper off the desk. As he looked it over, his face broke out into a smile. 

“Of course you can’t, Harry. Give it here. You both should watch, because I have a feeling this will be a one time playback,” Merlin grinned at Harry and Eggsy in turn before he shooed Harry out of his seat and sat in his place.

Eggsy and Harry step into place behind either side of the chair Merlin was occupying and watched as he did something with the code that Devina had sent them and he was able to access the files on the USB stick. 

Two files, to be exact, labeled, “Open First,” and “009.”

When Merlin opened the first file, it was of Devina, sitting in front of a laptop, Eggsy assumed, to which she waved cheekily before she spoke.

“Heya, guys, I thought you might want to see how I went about handing this issue. I think it’s turning out quite well, so far,” she winked, “Merlin, don’t try. You’ll destroy whatever you’re viewing on. It better not be connected to your server if you do, yeah?”

With that, the video stopped and automatically closed. Eggsy looked at Merlin with a question on the tip of his tongue.

“Of course she’d booby trap the damn thing,” Merlin mumbled as he opened the other file. Eggsy decided not to ask.

The second file opened up and seemed to be surveillance footage. It was well put together, jumping from camera to camera without loosing sight of what was being tracked. Devina, it seemed. She was walking down the street with a purpose. Suddenly she looked directly at a camera and winked before she abruptly turned the corner into an alley and went up a fucking wall.

Eggsy blinked and said, “Did she just?” trailing off as Merlin and Harry nodded next to him. 

“It seems that she did,” Harry commented, eyes flickering around the frame. They couldn’t see Devina anywhere.

It wasn’t too long before another figure entered the frame. The man didn’t hesitate, but slowed and looked around before stepping around the corner to investigate the disappearance of his target. He obviously didn’t see her. He turned back and looked around the street. They all three sucked in a breath as a knife and a hand suddenly appeared behind him before Devina’s face could be seen, grinning wickedly behind his shoulder.

They saw her quickly tip his chin back and slide her blade across his throat. They all let their breaths out when it didn’t cut the man’s throat wide open, just left a dark line in the trail of the blade. She then pulled him backward into the alley. 

In less than a minute, Devina walked out of the alley and seamlessly joined the foot traffic in the direction that she’d originally been going. They all watch and see the time stamp on the CCTV footage jump about thirty minutes and they saw the man stiffly leave the alley with a bright purple line across his throat and a rather large scowl on his face. 

He stiffly straightened his suit as he hurried away in the direction opposite Devina before the footage stopped and the window closed.

Eggsy noticed that both files were gone from the directory of the USB stick before the whole thing closed out and Merlin quickly pulled it from the laptop. He then opened and stated up a diagnostics program before he did anything else. He reached over and dropped the USB stick into the bright purple box that was open on Harry’s desk. 

“So,” Eggsy draws out, “who was that?”

“I presume it was double oh agent number nine,” Harry said with a satisfied smile blooming across his face.

Merlin chuckled, “I wonder if she will send a video for each of them.”

“There’s what, eight more?” Eggsy asked.

“Yes,” Merlin commented, “but there will only be six more videos.”

“Why only six?” Harry asked, looking at Merlin.

“She said something about having dealt with six and seven, previously,” Merlin told him.

“Yeah,” Eggsy said, “and 007 was right cozy in her place, don’t think this will happen with him.”

“And from your previous encounter, 006 is more than acquainted with her, himself,” Harry mused.

“Yeah, I wonder if he calls her ‘lisichka’ to her face,” Eggsy said with a grin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is welcome and encouraged.


	21. Retraining

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Deivina and the double ohs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, so you might have already read this one. I posted chapter 21 before I posted chapter 20, so go back and read if you missed it! Now that they are in the correct order...

009, Thomas Kite, was just the first.

Of course things just escalated when when Thomas stalked into MI6 for a briefing with a bright purple line across his neck. Tanner reported to Q that M laughed and laughed at his muttered explanation after she demanded what had happened to him.

When Thomas arrived in Q branch for his weaponry, he muttered. Q just raised and eyebrow at him and he cleared his throat and repeated his request.

“M said that I should ask you if you know what is on my neck and if you have anything that can get it off,” Thomas snapped.

Q only spoke calmly in return, “Indeed, I now exactly what it is, but I am not certain that anything will get it off quickly. It’s the same ink that is in a bank dye-pack. Some harsh cleaners might do it.”

Thomas Kite, 009, scowled as he collected his kit and turned to exit q branch. Q didn’t bother to wait until he was out of earshot before he called out to his and Devina’s techs.

“Alright, mark the board, Devina-one and double oh agents-zero!”

The gleefully complied, setting up the prepared white board they had ready to keep score. The minions of q branch had taken it quite well that one of their quartermasters was an assassin.

They believed it made their self-given title more appropriate. They did admit, amongst themselves, that they had rather thought it would be Q with the secrets. The argument continued as to which one was the boss in their secret lives. The issue was never resolved, but they were content to be working for the most dangerous people in the agency.

They started to embrace the name ‘Minions’ more publicly.

}*{

Christopher Sands, 005, was the next to fall. 

He followed Devina to a pub, of all things. She actually went on her own, to a trivia night and joined in with a group that was looking for one more to fill out their table. He observed her laughing, answering questions, singing along to the music in-between rounds. 

He was almost surprised by her ability to blend into her surroundings and have a good time. He’d thought her a rather dorky nerd all the times he’d seen her in q branch. It was the main reason why he had followed her, he just couldn’t believe that this woman was an _assassin_. He felt secure and smug that she obviously hadn’t seen him.

He felt that confidence right up until he followed her outside when she exited by the side door after she laughingly excused herself for a smoke. He went out the front door and around to the ally she must be in and stopped, lurching to the side to lean on the wall after two walloping impacts against his chest. 

He gasped for breath and looked up when he heard her chuckle. He saw her leaning casually against the wall of the pub as she holstered a gun, cigarette hanging out of her mouth with her lips spread into a grin.

She pushed herself off of the wall and approached him, saying in a low voice, “I count that as a win,” before she stubbed her cigarette against the wall and dropped it into the convenient receptacle. She turned her back on him easily and went back into the building to finish the night of trivia.

He was still feeling the embarrassment of the incident when he got home and into proper light. He grimaced as he flopped down in his favorite chair. His suit was absolutely _ruined_. She’d shot him with what looked like the purple paint that 009 had had across his throat.

The next time he was in q branch, Devina graciously accepted his apology for interrupting her night out.

He also pretended that he hadn’t noticed the updated white board.

}*{

Charles Baker, 008, was an idiot. 

There was no other conclusion to be drawn as M looked at him where he lay on a bed in medical. She was waiting for him to wake up after Devina had beaned him with a metal bar that she had been shaping to reinforce the weapons cash in one of the agency cars.

He had stupidly tried to take her down in her territory. In _q branch_. 

Devina had been in full safety gear at the time, as well. Leathers, gloves, steel capped boots. She’d even had her welding hood on as she had been welding at the time. Her visibility might have been limited, but that didn’t stop the light in the upper right corner of the lens of her helmet from blinking when the door to her lab had opened. She didn’t attack, immediately, it could have been anyone, after all.

She did, however, quickly release the trigger of her MIG welder and tip her helmet up and off. She stood straight just in time to avoid a hit to the side of her head. Someone had come into her lab and tried to, literally, blindside her while she was working. With hot metal and electricity. In a room full of pressurized gas of which a large quantity was combustible.

She didn’t kill him, but she certainly made her anger at the situation felt.

She was cognizant in her rage that she couldn’t kill this man. She couldn’t permanently injure him. So, she did the next best thing, in her mind. She beat him to a bloody pulp before she gave him a minor concussion with a metal rod that she’d not gotten around to working on, yet.

She went to the wall and hit the intercom. When Q answered her, she requested that he sent medical with a back board and M down to her lab. He did as she requested and quickly got the program open that he needed to review the feed of what had happened. He was quite enraged, himself, when he was done. He quickly shut it down and made his was to Devina’s lab, fuming.

M was not pleased to be called down and even less so when she arrived to see 008 being carted out of the room on a stretcher. She quickly closed her mouth when she saw Devina’s face. It held more emotion than she had ever seen on her, even when she was a small girl. And it was anger.

She quickly understood when it was explained to her how 008 had compromised the safety of q branch and MI6. She was a bit startled when she heard the dimensions of the explosion that could happen in Devina’s welding lab and the amount of damage that could be done to the structural supports of the building was shocking. They had placed her lab as safely as they could, and while that lessened the danger, it was far from harmless.

And so M was there when Charles Baker woke up. 

He rather wished that she wasn’t.

Q branch was quietly gleeful when they updated the white board. The minions were pleased that their bosses cared so much for their safety.

}*{

004, Dennis Marks, was still in medical when he had his turn.

He woke up to the laughter of a nurse and was disgruntled when he realized that she was laughing at him.

“What?” he asked, face thunderous. He still ached from his mission and was being weaned off the good drugs. She just shook her head and walked out. He could hear her talking to someone out in the hall and he just continued to frown as his doctor entered the room.

At the choked off laugh, his frown deepened and he still received no explanation. The doctor walked out of the room without a word but returned shortly and handed the man in the bed a mirror.

His confusion turned into anger as soon as he registered what the medical staff found so amusing. Written in purple across his whole face was, “Devina was here.” There was also a purple line across his throat, just where a knife blade would cut for a close, quick kill.

“I’ll fucking kill her,” he snarled and threw the mirror as hard as he could against a wall.

“No,” the doctor said in a voice that brooked no argument, “you won’t.”

Dennis looked at the doctor for a moment before he shrewdly closed his mouth and raised an eyebrow in imperious question.

“I see that no one had told you, then, what you have accomplished by being unable to keep your mouth shut,” the doctor said. “Allow me.”

What followed was a rather edifying tale. Dennis learned about how the double oh agents had decided to target Devina and the ways that she had retaliated. When it came to 008’s turn, the doctor stepped over to where the curtain had been pulled to section off the room. He swept the curtain aside dramatically. Dennis just stared at 008 where he lay unconscious in the bed over. He was covered in bruises with an IV drip of fluids in his arm.

“You are much more fortunate than the others have been, but 008 has gotten the worst of it, so far. He endangered everyone in the building when he attacked her while she was welding,” the doctor explained. “You are the fourth. And I am being honest when I say that you have gotten off the lightest. We didn’t even know that she’d been here.”

With that the doctor pulled the curtain back to closed and walked out of the room. 

Dennis made the rather healthy decision to leave her alone. It seemed that she was quite capable of taking care of herself and getting the best of determined adversaries.

He didn’t know that his doctor had already called q branch to update the board.

}*{

002, Carl Fisk, was in the planning stages of taking on Devina when he got his. 

He had been smarter than the others, planning out a hit quietly, as he would a mission. After 008, 002 had decided that caution and distance would serve him best. So far the direct approach had had no success. 

He wasn’t expecting it, at all, when his window dropped open and he felt the sting of a paint ball exploding against his upper chest and lower throat. He sighed, resigned, as he reached up to rub the sting, feeling the wetness against his chest. He looked at his finger tips and saw the now familiar purple paint on them and his clothing.   
He waved a hand in acknowledgment of the excellent shot when he stood up from his couch. He’d been going over what he’d been able to access about Devina. There had been little information and he’d been plotting how to find more.

As he approached the window, he noticed that there was something around the outer frame. It was definitely something that had been added, recently, and he had no idea what it was, but he quickly decided that it was somehow connected to the way his window had dropped open, silently.

He was impressed. He was on the sixth floor of his building and there was no way to easily access the window. He pushed it closed and picked up his phone to call q branch.

When he was finally able to get through to Q he stated, “She got me, but there is something on my window that I think your department should look at. Bypassed my security and dropped the window open. I have no idea how she got it there, either.”

He pulled the phone away from his ear with a sour look as laughter came through the speaker. He would deny smiling a bit when he heard that call go out to update the score. Currently, Devina-five, double ohs-zero.

}*{

003, Byron Temple, was next.

The minions were outraged when it got to them that he had been slandering Devina all over MI6. They were prepared to start making his missions just a touch more difficult before she laughed it off and told them to leave it. She told them that it was part of his plan, trying to unsettle her and make her less cautious. 

(Among themselves, they decided that he needed to be reminded not to mess with q branch or it’s heads. Regardless of what was going between Devina and the double ohs, she was one of theirs and they wouldn’t let anyone get away with treating them in such a manner. They would wait, though, until Devina had her say.)

Devina, on the other hand, was having a great time programming a chip to fit into 003’s BMW. It was mildly challenging and something that she hadn’t done before. At least, not in the way she was doing, now. She had always enhanced on-board computers for better performance; this time, she was programming it to “lock down.” She was rather looking forward to what she had planned for 003.

A few days later, she walked up to his window from the back of the car and used the butt of her gun to break it inward while he was swearing viciously in the driver’s seat. He immediately turned to fight with his seat-belt that had tightened on him and pinned his gun in it’s holster, scrambling to arm himself before he’d even looked to see who his assailant was.

“Byron,” she said his name with her voice full of dark humor. 

When his gaze snapped up to her face and his eyes widened, she shot him in the face. Well, the forehead, really. He was quite fortunate that she had dialed down the pressure. Yes, it stung when the paint ball broke against his skin, but it didn’t knock him out, or leave him concussed. 

He breathed out a sigh of relief when he realized that he wasn’t dead. He’d not thought he was about to be attacked when his car had stalled out after he’d fastened his seat-belt. He’d been trying to restart it, cursing a blue streak (the car had just been serviced) when the glass of his window had exploded inward. He had scrambled for his gun, but it was pinned by his now locked up seat-belt.

When he’d looked up, startled to hear his name in a familiar voice, he thought for sure she was going to actually kill him. Her voice had been, somehow, both devoid of emotion and full of humor. Every fabricated thing he’d said about her flashed through his mind, as his eyesight was filled by the barrel of a gun. 

When he blinked the paint out of his eyes, she was gone. He searched the immediate area, frantically looking for her as he once again started to struggle with his seat-belt. He forced himself stop and take a few deep breaths. Once he had calmed, he remembered that he did have a knife on him.

As he cut himself out and carefully crawled out the window when he couldn’t get the door to open. He had one leg out and one leg still in the car when he was alert by the sound of a shoe scraping on concrete. He almost fell in his scramble to get out of his car and draw his gun.

A hand clamped over his wrist and kept his gun in its holster. 007 backed him up into his car and had him off balance before he could register it.

“Terrible idea, wasn’t it, to challenge arguably the best quartermaster we’ve had?” James inquired mildly. 

Byron just blinked at him, waiting to see if James was going to hurt him or let him go.

“Why do you care?” Byron asked him cautiously.

James hummed at him before he said, “You forgot, in your machinations, that everyone has a personal life.”

“What?” His face began to pale as he saw 006 trail up behind 007 and look at him over his shoulder.

Alec smiled, “Seeing her shoot you in the face almost makes up for it, but not quite.”

Byron held his breath when Alec reached out and roughly patted his check. He didn’t resist as James removed his hand from his gun and Alec reached around him to slide the gun out of its holster. His breath gusted out when James stepped away from him and Alec tossed the gun into the car through the broken window.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

All three of them whipped there heads in the direction the voice came from. Alec and James looked slightly abashed and Byron just held his breath again when they saw Devina standing there.

“Right,” she said in a flat voice, “you two come with me,” she ordered before she looked right at 003. “003, sort yourself out, you are to report to M for a mission briefing in one hour.”

She turned and walked away. James and Alec exchanged a look between them before turning menacing smiles at Byron. James shoved him back into the car and Alec laughed as they trailed after Devina.

Byron almost ran into his house, slamming and locking the door behind him.

Before his briefing commenced and M decided not to send him out for a couple days so that the ink could fade from his skin, the board in q branch reflected his run in with Devina. 

There was only one double oh agent that she hadn’t taken down yet.

001 was due back in less than a week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is welcome and encouraged.


	22. Friends?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone sees a different side of Devina.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry? Writing is a hobby that often takes a back seat to life, I guess. But, here we go!

Harry looked at the boxes lined up across the shelf in his office. He had laughed a bit when they had noticed that they were the colors of the rainbow. They had arranged them accordingly and the only color missing was red. 

He wondered, briefly, why the first was last.

He, Merlin and Eggsy had watched the videos they had been sent in each box with glee. There was only one concerning moment when the video in 008’s blue box almost sent Merlin into a rage, even though there had been a warning from Devina to preface it. They also hadn’t quite expected the unrestrained manner in which Devina had beaten the man. 

Once Merlin explained the danger, they had understood quite a bit better. 

That video was probably Eggsy’s favorite, Harry had noted. He’d always had quite the violent streak of his own, after all. Merlin had loved the video from the orange box, 002. There had been gadgetry and a rather beautifully executed sniper shot shown through a gorgeous heads up display. She had included the plans for the device that she used to open the window and how it worked.

Harry’s favorite was the last that they had received. The yellow box, 003. But then, Harry had always had a flair for the dramatic, and dramatic it was. She had included an explanation of the set up with the car before the video and he’d adored the smirk she wore when she smashed his window garnered his attention before she shot him in the face. It was brilliant. He wouldn’t admit, though that his favorite part was seeing the forms of 006 and 007 trail after her like puppies. He was dying to know why they had been there, as they had arrived after Devina had “left.”

Harry made the decision to seek her out. So far, she had always come to them and, other than Eggsy’s uninvited appearance at her home, they had not reached out to her.

_Are you free for dinner?-HH_

It wasn’t long before he received a reply in the affirmative, a time and an address. He looked askance at the address for a moment before shrugging and setting an alarm to remind him when it is time to leave before bending back to his paperwork.

}*{

Devina and Harry had a lovely, low-key dinner at a surprisingly raggedy pub that Devina liked to frequent. It was a hidden gem, Harry commented, the food was simple but exceptional. The clientele was working class and obviously used to Devina, as she was greeted warmly by the bar man and their waitress gave them both a genuine smile and called Devina by name.

Devina told Harry how she’d found the place purely by accident when she’d gotten hungry on one of her “update my London map” excursions that she periodically made. They spent a good deal of time talking about Devina’s knowledge of the greater London area, as well as the surrounding suburbs, and how she kept it up. He laughed at some of her stories about running around the city when she was a child as she spoke about her evasion training with MI6. She kept it light and he let her.

Their talk eventually turned to her engagements with the agents from work. Thankfully the pub was crowded and loud enough that their conversation wouldn’t be overheard. The backs of the booths were low, so no one could hide and listen to them from the other side, if they were so inclined. 

“How did you get that device on Fisk’s window,” Harry asked her, grinning.

“Oh, really, Harry, same way any of us would have,” she winked, “I came down from the roof the night before and installed it.”

“You installed it from a harness?” he burst out laughing. “Merlin would love to have you work for him, you know? I don’t think that our people could accomplish it.”

“Ah, ah, Harry, I am happy where I am. And I’ve had years to figure this stuff out. It’s what I’m good at.”

“True. Tell me about Temple, how did the other two get involved?” Harry moved the topic along.

Devina rolled her eyes, “Those two. Right pain in my ass, sometimes,” her smile belied her irritated tone. “It was a bit of misplaced chivalry.”

Harry’s eyebrows crawled up his forehead at that statement and she chuckled.

“Temple was talking shit about me all over work. No one took it well,” she said. “I suppose I should be happy they waited until I was done with him.” She feigned a sigh before she continued with humor, “I am pretty sure that our techs are going to make his life miserable for a while.”

“It was that bad?” Harry asked.

“Well,” she agreed, “it certainly wasn’t good.”

“I can’t say that I’m not pleased someone is looking out of your interests,” Harry replied.

She blew out an exasperated breath, “It is very strange to be on the receiving end of it, yeah?” She sat back in the booth, “I am definitely not used to it, but I already got that ‘what would you do if it had been about me’ lecture from Tristan, so, that’s that.”

“I suppose it is, at that,” Harry said, smiling. “And what about the last one?”

Devina grinned, “She’s been away for work. I am biding my time to see how she reacts to it all when she returns. She’s the ‘femme fatal’ type, so I don’t know if she’ll see it the same way the rest have done.”

“She’s a honey trap?” Harry asked for clarification.

Devina hummed and nodded, “She is far more than that, but she’s really good at those.”

They lapsed into companionable silence for a moment, both scanning the pub. Devina noticed the barman signal her that some newcomers had arrived. She scanned the indicated area and chuckled. A smallish group of intoxicated men had entered and were scanning the crowd, definitely looking for trouble, obviously unfamiliar with how things worked in this particular pub.

“Well, Harry, it looks like you might get to brush up on your pub brawling. Eggsy will be disappointed he isn’t here,” she told him, lightly.

Harry looked in the direction that she was gazing and asked, “Why is it your problem?”

Her smile grew enigmatic, “It’s my place, Harry. They expect me to protect it. If I weren’t here, now, I’d be finding them, later.”

“And here I thought you weren’t a fighter?” Harry commented.

“Well, the goal is to get them to leave _without_ a fight.”

}*{

Harry was still chuckling when he and Devina cleared the door. 

As predicted, the men ordered drinks and got rowdy very quickly. The locals all looked to Devina before she stood, folded her napkin on the table and stepped into the fray. He wasn’t quite sure how she accomplished it, but she’d appeared in the middle of the group looking friendly and harmless.

She’d talked the men down with her hands relaxed at her sides and an affable smile on her face. It seemed that she remembered something that Harry hadn’t; not everyone was comfortable committing violence toward women. These men were average, if dim, members of the populace rather than agents of any kind. 

She accomplished a portion of her goal. There was no fight, and rather than leaving, the group had settled into a boisterous group of new clientele for the pub. As they walked outside, they were cheering and laughing with the regulars, having decided that a good time didn’t mean a fight. He was shaking his head, wondering how there were so many sides to her and how many he had yet to see.

When they were standing out front, having paid their check after assuring the men were good for the night, he asked, “Your place?”

She grinned at him with her hands in her pockets and directed his gaze to the sign over the door that said, “Freddy’s.”

“I thought it was fortuitous,” she said, “and I ended up buying the place. I’m glad that I did. It’s a great haven, and these people will never tell a soul that I am more than just someone who comes in for a drink or a meal now and then.”

“Sanctuary,” Harry said as they started to walk down the street.

“We all need a place that’s ours,” she said walking next to him with a smile. 

“It seems as though you are on the way to gaining another,” Harry quips at her.

“No,” she said, looking at him intently, “it could never be _mine_ , I am just making some new friends.”

They continued on their way, keeping conversation light as they went, until it was late enough that they both felt the need to call it a night. Harry watched her walk away from him a few meters before she seemed to just disappear into the shadows. He shook his head, wondering if she had done it on purpose or if the behavior was just that ingrained into her.

He smiled as he turned and made his own way home. They had another appointment for Tai Chi in a few days, barring emergencies. 

He was happy that he’d reached out to her.

}*{

Devina had her time with Amanda Green, 001, a few days later. 

Devina met her in a rather posh cocktail bar that she was a bit familiar with, thanks to James. Amanda had on a lovely cocktail dress and Devina was wearing her usual tailored trousers and vest, the cut and material just a bit more formal than her everyday wear.

Devina slid into the seat next to her at the bar and ordered herself a scotch. Only after she’d received it did Amanda speak to her.

“Thank you for agreeing to meet with me,” she said, subtly looking Devina over.

Devina smiled, “Of course, it’s my pleasure.”

“Do you mind speaking with me about what is happening?” Amanda asked her with her own smile.

“Not at all,” Devina said, “the usual caveats apply, however.”

Amanda nodded her agreement and asked bluntly, “Why were you a secret?”

“In the beginning, it was necessary. Recently, because this situation is exactly what I didn’t want,” Devina told her. 

“You have handled it admirably,” Amanda told her, “by not hurting them. I don’t think I could have done that.”

“You did hurt some of them,” Devina replied with a grin, “and I did hurt one of them.”

“He deserved far more than what you gave him. That kind of stupidity should never be rewarded.”

Devina’s grin widened, “It wasn’t. But, I promised, no permanent injuries.”

Amanda nodded at her, “I see. So, do you think I am coming for you?”

“I think that you are deciding whether or not you will,” Devina winked. “You are dressed for seduction.”

“And I can see that you won’t be seduced. You won’t even pretend to be seduced, will you?” Amanda’s smile was becoming more genuine.

“No, I won’t,” Devina told her. “Sex that neither of us wants to have is not on my agenda.”

Amanda slid her eyes down Devina’s body as she said, “I don’t know about neither of us.”

Devina chuckled and rolled her eyes, “You are lovely, but not my type.”

“That, truly, is a shame,” Amanda told her before taking a sip of her drink.

Devina polished off her drink before she leaned in and slid her hand across Amanda’s lower back to lightly grip her hip as she brushed her lips along Amanda’s ear. 

“Eventually, you might find some reason that it’s not.” 

Devina kept her voice low and barely breathed out the words before she sat back, removing her hand, and stood. She smoothly laid out money for her drink and smiled at Amanda before she turned and made her way back out to the street.

Devina didn’t turn to see Amanda looking after her wistfully before she turned back to her own drink. She also didn’t look back to watch Amanda’s eyes cloud over and her face fall slack before she slid off of her chair and to the floor.

When she woke up in a hospital bed where she was under observation, having been brought in after she’d passed out, Amanda smiled ruefully. She hadn’t seen it coming. 

Amanda Greene, 001, called q-branch to let them know Devina had swept the board. She wasn’t a sore looser and it was her own fault for thinking the other woman incapable of subtlety. She hadn’t considered it, given the way Devina has dealt with the other double-ohs. She had expected a straight forward attack or defense, not to be seduced into what had obviously been a false sense of security where the other woman was concerned.

 _Such a shame,_ she thought, smiling to herself as she signed the paperwork to check out of the hospital.

}*{

Merlin stared at the laptop, contemplative, while Eggsy just blinked and Harry chuckled.

“Well, that was different,” Harry remarked to the others.

Merlin nodded and Eggsy grinned as he commented, “Yeah, it was. Wasn’t expecting that. Rox should have seen it.”

Merlin sat up straight and looked at Eggsy, “Roxanne will probably learn it from her, directly.”

“I am not sure about that,” Harry said as he pulled the USB stick from the drive and stored it in the red box on the shelf with the others. “She has been, very strictly, only teaching her about the knives.”

Eggsy agreed, “Well, yes. That is all Rox has asked her about. She can be amazingly one track, that girl.”

Merlin snorted his amused agreement as he pulled up video feed from one of the gyms. All three of them smiled fondly as Roxanne could be seen with a set of poi, face set into fierce concentration as she tried to spin them.  
They all chuckled at her shriek of outrage when she lost control of them and hit herself in the back of the head.

“At least it wasn’t her face, this time,” Eggsy said with a grin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is welcome and encouraged.

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is encouraged and more than welcome!
> 
>  
> 
> *Gloved-a term for a gross thing that happens on many work sites when workers wear their rings. The rings get caught, and the flesh gets pulled off the finger, like a glove...it's terrible.


End file.
